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If you don’t intend on doing either of these things because you think they’re for wackadoo hippies you can skip this. However, I’m going to put it out there that I advocate HIGHLY for both – not only because I’m a wackadoo hippie, but because they seriously make life easier.

Breastfeeding is much more convenient than formula feeding – especially in the middle of the night when the last damn thing you want to do is make a bottle. And baby wearing not only saved my sanity, but provided some of my favorite moments just going about my life with a little Whuffle snuggled up on me. I loved wearing him so much that the first time I went to the grocery store without him in the Ergo… I honestly missed him. I seriously miss the “All Ergo All the Time” days more than I miss breastfeeding.

For babywearing, you want at least two carriers: the Ergo and a sling or wrap for the newborn period in which your floppy nugget may or may not tolerate the infant insert. I can’t emphasize enough how very, VERY much you want the Ergo. It’s the single greatest baby product I purchased. Until very recently when he got too wiggly to be contained and big enough to ride in a grocery cart, I wore Paulo in the Ergo every single time we left the house. I still wear him several times per week as he and I both vastly prefer it over the bulky stroller. (Though sometimes, with the wiggling, the stroller is the better option.)

I often get asked if he’s heavy – and no. The Ergo distributes weight much in the same way as a very good hiking backpack. Paulo was 18+ pounds at his 9mo well-baby visit and shortly after, I wore him for over 12 hours while we traveled from Massachusetts to Portugal. I was tired in many, many ways but at no point was one of my complaints that the baby was too heavy.

The one issue that sometimes sours new mamas on the Ergo is the insert for teeny wee babies. Sometimes, they just don’t like it. And it’s bulky and awkward, I can’t really blame them. Paulo was indifferent to it, but I will say that as soon as he outgrew it, his love for the Ergo increased a thousand fold from “apathy” to “seriously, being strapped in this thing is his favorite place to be.”

So, if you really want to get the most out of baby wearing, you’ll want a second – smaller! – device for the newborn days. Especially since the newborn period is when you’ll really want to be wearing the baby as much as humanly possible. The sling became too uncomfortable for my shoulders when the Whuff hit 12lbs, at about 4mos, until then I wore it around the house ALL. THE. TIME.

I had a Balboa Baby sling and don’t recommend it as the fabric just DOES. NOT. BREATHE. I dis-recommend it so much that I’m not even linking to it. This sling pictures is a Sakura Bloom and is what I would purchase were I in the market for a sling – the linen is much lighter and more breathable than whatever crap the Balboa was made out of.

I also had a Moby Wrap which I’m kinda apathetic about. It was less bulky than the Ergo for wearing around the house (I found the hip belt made sitting a little difficult – I mastered it later on, but not until about six or seven months) but the jersey fabric made it so that even in only his diaper – the Whuff was so sweaty that I’d have to repeatedly wipe his wee head with a cool cloth. (He was born in March and we were mostly using the Moby during one of the stupidly hottest early summers Rhode Island had seen. Seriously, 90+ degrees in MAY.) He also horked a lot on it whenever I’d put him in – I never did figure out what exactly I was doing in terms of positioning that caused it, but there it was. A sweaty mess of jersey fabric smelling of hork.  For Eventual Second Baby, I might try a Mei Tai as an Ergo back-up as they’re a little more versatile for teeny wee babies.

On to breastfeeding!

I give all of my mama-to-be friends who are planning on breastfeeding a pack of soothies gels. These saved my life during the first few weeks of nipple chafing. Sorry, your nipples will indeed chafe a little as they toughen up while having a very small person sucking the life out of them 12 times per day. These help oh so very, very much.

Lanolin cream is also helpful to prevent chafing and soothe sore nips, but I really didn’t use it all that much as I didn’t have much in the way of moderate soreness. I was either totally fine or needed the full on gel treatment. I honestly have full tubes of lanolin left over unopened.

See also: nursing pads. I have boxes of these unopened as I leaked a little bit… but only occasionally. I was not a serial leaker. So, they were absolutely useful when I needed them – but I wasn’t using them every day. I was partly lucky and also it was just partly the benefit of being able to nurse on demand – I could nurse when *I* needed the relief, not just when the Whuff was hungry.

Breast pump. I didn’t get one of these ahead of time as I thought (oh so wrongly) that I wouldn’t need to pump as I wasn’t going back to work. This was not the case. There were times (such as when I had the audacity to eat onions) where I had to pump and dump. There were also the (rarer) times when I had to pump because my boob was too sore for nursing and the pump was a little gentler on the nips. Or the (even rarer) times when I needed to pump as I was gone for several feedings in a row and was about to asplode.

I got a cheap electric pump at Target and don’t recommend it. It got the job done, but it was also uncomfortable and made me feel just… ick. The hormone rush from the pump was crazy sick making. I’d feel queasy and cry after each pumping episode, so clearly, I tried to keep them to the bare minimum. I certainly won’t be the market for a hospital grade pump, but for Eventual Second Baby, I’m going to invest in a higher grade pump because dammit, my boobs are worth it.

Oh yes, some kind of pillow. I kind of spaced out on this momentarily as once we mastered side-lying nursing (around 5mos) that was it for us. All side-lying all the time. Until then, it was all about the Boppy. So, while the Whuff only weaned six weeks ago – it’s been a good six months since the Boppy was used at all. Seriously though – couldn’t have made it through the first few months without one. During growth spurts when he would cluster feed, he would pretty much be on my lap, on the Boppy, all day long either nursing or sleeping. It also came in handy to set him down all propped up on it so he could stretch out a bit for a few minutes at a time.

If that adorable baby hanging out on the pillow isn’t a good advertisement for the Boppy, I don’t know what is. This is the one area where the Boppy beats out the My Brest Friend pillow as you can’t really use the MBF as an infant lounger. Some moms – especially moms who have had c-sections – really prefer the MBF though, and y’know, whatever works. For me, you can take my Boppy from my cold, dead hands. Since we’ll probably move again before Eventual Second Baby, I’ve only saved the truly, truly essential newborn items. Believe you me, the Boppy is one of them. (It’s currently being used as a foot rest up in my office, which feels kind of sacrilegious… but very, very cozy.)

Lastly, you will need some kind of method to remember which side you need to start feeding on next. Sometimes the level of back-up in the boob will be enough to know… but most days, with sleep deprivation being what it is, you’ll be playing a guessing game. And if you guess wrong and start on the same side twice… the other boob is going to get way backed up and angry. There are, of course, apps for this – and I never used them. I never used any “Itzbeen” timers or anything else as I just changed him when he was stinky, fed him when he seemed hungry, and tried to put him down at regular intervals between feedings. I know some moms really benefit from feeling like they’ve got a system and the apps are great for them, but I just didn’t feel like I needed one.

But I still needed some way to know WHICH BOOB IS NEXT. I mostly used a hair tie around my wrist, but that was kind of unattractive when I’d leave the house, so I’d upgrade to an elastic bracelet that was easy to slip on to my other wrist after a feeding. After Nuno and I were married and got our rings, I simply moved my wedding ring from hand to hand.

So, there you have it. Some tools to get you on your way to hippie baby bliss. Or at least hippie baby basic contentment.