We Have a New Carrier in our Lending Library! The Ergobaby Adapt

One of our Educator's, Erin got to try out the new Ergo Adapt today with her 2.5 year old! It is such a difference on the panel height and width as compared to an original Ergo. And it can fit an infant without an insert! A true infant to toddler carrier--this one is heading to one of our libraries ASAP!  Be sure to keep an eye on our Public Lending Library Page for details!  

Thanks to Ergobaby for their generous donation to BWI of Cleveland!

Congrats to our Medalists for our ‪#‎summerwearinggames‬ Event!

EVENT NUMBER ONE WINNERS!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first event in the Summer Babywearing Games! We loved seeing all the photos showing how babywearing helped you to enjoy the summer!

The person with the most votes was our very own educator, Rebekah Kelly, who shared a wonderful photo of herself wearing and breastfeeding at the ocean!

But since we’d rather give these awesome prizes to our fabulous members, here are the real winners!! For the folks who tied on number of votes, we used a random number generator to determine the medal winners. ***Please email volunteer@bwiofcleveland.org for information on how to collect your prize!***

Gold Medal (16 votes) - Abby Mosher

Silver Medal (13 votes) - Carleen Almasy Johnstone

Bronze Medal (13 votes) - Jenn Rose Baker

The Gold Medal winner will receive either $5 off a new membership or renewal OR the chance to borrow two carriers from one of our monthly meetings!

The Silver Medal winner will receive an item made from a woven wrap!

The Bronze Medal winner will receive a BWI of Cleveland car decal!

Now on to Event #2: Red, White, & Blue #babywearingUSA!!

In this event, we want to see your photos that show your USA pride while babywearing!! Whether you're wearing a red, white, and blue wrap, attending a 4th of July parade, or your little one is waving an American flag - we want to see your pics!! Post as many photos as you'd like in our Facebook Group and be sure to vote for your favorites by clicking the "like" button! This event will run through Wednesday, August 10th!  Good luck!

Summer Babywearing Olympic Games!

Welcome to the First Summer Babywearing Olympic Games!

Games will start on Friday, August 5th and there will be 5 medal competitions, plus a grand prize. Each competition will last for 3 days. To enter, you'll need to take a photo or video that fits with the theme of the competition and post it to our Facebook Group with the appropriate hashtag. To win, you need people to like your photo! The most likes for each contest takes the gold, second is silver, and third is bronze. Pictures must be received by midnight on the last day of the contest. By entering this contest and submitting your photos, you agree to allow BWI of Cleveland to share your photos on our chapter blog.

Prizes will be awarded for gold, silver, and bronze for each event. Prizes must be claimed by September 31, 2016 and have no cash value. Prizes may be transferred, but are only good for BWI of Cleveland and may not be applied to any other BWI chapter. Prizes may not be combined. (If you win twice, you can give away or forfeit the lesser prize, and the next photo in line will be moved up.) You may enter each contest with as many photos as you'd like. At the end of the Games, all of the gold medalists from each event will be entered in a Grand Prize contest, for an even bigger prize!

Here's the event schedule:
August 5th through August 7th - Summer Wearing Games: Photos of you enjoying the summer while babywearing! ‪#‎summerwearinggames‬

August 8th through August 10th - Red, White, and Blue: Show your USA pride while wearing ‪#‎babywearingUSA‬

August 11th through August 13th- Overcoming Obstacles: What babywearing obstacles have you had to overcome? ‪#‎babywearingforthewin

August 14th through August 16th - Relay Race: Share photos of your child being worn by different friends and family members! #babywearingrelay

August 17th through August 19th - Babywearing Quadrathlon: Share photos of yourself wearing each of the 4 main types of carriers - buckle carrier, mei tai, ring sling, and wrap! #bwquadrathlon

August 21st - Grand Prize Contest

Good luck everyone and Happy Babywearing!  Let the Games BEGIN!

#takebacktherebozo

As some of you may already be aware, several large babywearing groups have recently been engaged in the effort to change the terminology ofrebozo to describe a woven wrap carry and a type of pass. For those not aware, rebozos are a woven fabric used in Mesoamerica for a variety of purposes and with important cultural significance, including babywearing. In support of the wishes of babywearers of Mesoamerican heritage to reserve this term only for these fabrics and #takebacktherebozo, Babywearing International and BWI of Cleveland will be no longer be using the term to describe wrap carries or wrap passes. There are ongoing conversations about what terms will be replacing them. Wearing Wiki has some current suggestions, but discussions are ongoing.

Read Babywearing International's statement: http://babywearinginternational.org/…/a-statement-on-reboz…/

Read current terminology suggested by Wearing Wiki: http://wearingwiki.com/wp/a-shift-in-terminology/

#lendinglibrarylove: Woven Wrap Blends and Brands

Cotton, linen, hemp… Didymos, Girasol, Natibaby…When it comes to woven wrap blends and brands the choices can be overwhelming. Maybe you are even asking yourself- “what IS a woven wrap?” Stay tuned as Babywearing International of Cleveland dives head first into the pool of woven wraps!!

So, what IS a woven wrap? As defined by Babywearing International “Wraps are the most traditional and simple of all carriers. They come in a variety of lengths and fabrics such as cotton, linen, wool, and other fabrics. Wraps can be used to carry an infant, toddler, or child in a variety of positions including front, hip, and back carries. Wraps are infinitely adjustable to meet the specific needs of the individual wearer. Learning to wrap may seem intimidating at first but can be mastered with practice. The beautiful fabrics used in many wraps make them an aesthetically pleasing style of baby carrier. Their lack of hardware makes them ideal for snuggling newborns but wraps are wonderful for babies and toddlers of any age.” When it comes to woven wraps-the possibilities are virtually endless. Many different carries can be accomplished based on the child’s development. And while we are going to be concentrating mostly on machine woven wraps-keep in mind that there are also handwoven wraps out there (and much like machine woven-many different fibers and aesthetics are available).

Source

Now that we know what a woven wrap IS-let’s talk about what they are made out of. Cotton, linen, hemp, and wool are fibers that can be found, as well as many others. Not only can a wrap be made of a single fiber type, blends of fiber types can be found too. Take a look at the infographic below for details on the individual fibers.

While there are many different fiber types and the choices may seem overwhelming, use the above infographic and the needs of the child and caregiver to help determine what best fits their needs!

We know what a woven wrap IS, we just learned about the different fibers, now let’s talk about different brands of woven wraps. We will concentrate on looking at some of the wrap brands that can be found in the Lending Library of BWI of CLE but there are SO MANY out there!! Look on the far right side of this page for “Our favorite places to shop for babycarriers” which links up many different places you can go to browse and purchase!

Woven Wrap Brands

Didymos: German company that was originated in 1972 they offer machine woven single fiber options (i.e. cotton), as well as fiber blends (i.e. cotton/hemp).

left: Didymos Day Owls-50% Cotton, 50% Hemp (Elyria Library)

right: Didymos  Indio Sunshine- 60% Organic Cotton, 40% Hemp (Fairview Park)

Girasol: 100% cotton wraps handwoven in Guatemala

left: Girasol Cosmic Rainbow- 100% Cotton (Solon)

right: Girasol Phoenix-100% Cotton (Wickliffe)

Natibaby: Machine woven wraps from Poland. They offer 100% cotton wraps, as well as fiber blends.

left: Natibaby Henna Flowers-30% Hemp, 70% Cotton (North Royalton)
right: Natibaby Cogs Princely (dyed)- 70% cotton, 30% tussah silk (Elyria)

While this list of woven wrap fibers and brands is not exhaustive it is a good starting point! Please remember that BWI of CLE is always here to answer any questions you have and we look forward to chatting with you in the future!

Would you like to learn more about woven wraps? Check out our Pinterest or join us at a monthly meeting! Want to see everything in our lending library? Check out our current inventory!!

Written by Nichole Hoven, the Financial Coordinator and a VBE with BWI of Cleveland.  She is mom to Lucas, wife to Ian, and full time engineer at a University.  She became interested in Babywearing while pregnant with her son and started out with a Boba stretch wrap, and an Ergo SSC.  Not being 100% sure on how to use the Ergo with a newborn led her to an internet search for a local Babywearing group. She found the Cleveland chapter and as they say, “the rest is history”. Her current favorite way to carry her son is using a woven wrap. She volunteers at the Elyria meeting and wherever else help is needed and her schedule permits.