#wrapreview

Kokoro Textiles has wowed me yet again with Bambi. The feel of the wrap is different from others I’ve used by them, a linen blend and their famous quad blend. Bambi is a blend of 50% organic cotton and 50% extra fine merino. As a very wool sensitive person I found Bambi to exceed expectations with zero itch factor.

Upon a washing and a steam iron (low heat for wool content) Bambi was quite soft to begin. Little breaking in was required to achieve the kitten belly status wrappers know and love. A month later Bambi is there. We’ve put Bambi through full paces.

[set of images featuring the fawn spot pattern and a white woman with a white tiny tot and a white big kid. Set in a barn with cows, milking cows, just the pleats, all dressed up, wearing a NYE hat, back carry with little and then big kid, and a cat napping by the wrap].

The wrapping qualities are excellent. Bambi wraps with a drapey look. Its passes glide and then lock into place. We had a full kitchen dance party without the wrap job being compromised. It is surprisingly light weight in hand compared to other wraps I’ve handled with merino. It was very easy on the shoulders. Most of my wrapping is done with a 19lbs (8.6kg) 16 month old. I did wrap my much larger 5.5 year old to see how it would hold up. While it did not make her weightless, and I’ve yet to find a carrier that makes a 45lb (20.4kg) kid weightless, it was still not diggy on the shoulders.

I would recommend Bambi for both new and experienced wrappers. New wrappers will find it easy to break in. Experience wrappers will appreciate the drape and the effortless shoulder pleats. Bambi will not disappoint and won’t be leaving here anytime soon!

Wraps: Bijou Abstract Daybreak 8 and Bijou Blast Remix ?

Company: Bijou

Content: 100 percent cotton/ Eco2cotton and tencel

Wearer: A 4 year old, 39 lb. princess-sized pain

Base size: 8

Recently, I’ve been thinking about our babywearing “journey.” Journey makes it sound so dramatic, amirite? Especially when wearing Olivia was a method of just surviving every single day as a working mom.

As movements in the babywearing “world” (again pretentious) for members from marginalized backgrounds expose just how pervasive racism and other structural inequities are in something that is supposed to be so pure, I have been mulling tapping out. My daughter is four. Our ups are fewer. Bills need to be paid. I’m tired of yelling #youcannotignorethis. One wrap is a helluva lot of matte lipsticks.

And I’m just weary. Weary of calls to educate. Weary of folx seeking only to repudiate what I know and have experienced for their own comfort. Weary of being tagged in BWD for the next round of nonsense.

That started out way heavier than I intended. As Angelica Schuyler says, rewwwinnnnnnndddddd....

We are almost to the end of this phase of our life. And I’ve been reflecting on how much I’ve changed since the first time I put Olivia on my back years ago.

Enter Bijou.

What’s Bijou got to do with this? Not a lot. And everything.

Jaime Gassman, owner of Bijou, messaged me one night with an offer to try out Abstract Daybreak in an 8. AN EIGHT. My base size. I naturally said yes. It arrived in gorgeous coral pink and shiny gray. And that package was skinnnnnnnty like me back before I discovered tacos and only drank hard liquor. Yea right. No way I’m going to like this. Shoulda stuck to BrandNameILoveButWontName-o.

Then, two (or so) days later Bijou Blast Remix arrived from my dear friend Tracy Wu. I picked it up and said, “Woah. Now THIS I can be down with.” It was heavy heavy. Like your favorite double double cheeseburger with extra bacon and you wonder how you’re going to get your mouth around it heavy. Yea, thick is what Mama likes.

Look. There’s my butt. You’re welcome.

First up was Daybreak. We took it with us to Old Navy to buy Olivia a coat at nap time. Ultimate test for her patience with me and my patience with her father. We started with a standard double hammock, my go-to carry. And yall. It was glorious to tie in front with tails. GLORIOUS. #thisbodybabywears and we need a size 8 base. The entire time I wrapped, I was skeptical. More skeptical than I was of her dad at our first date where he didn’t pay for my Starbucks latte (I mean, it’s $4. SERIOUSLY?). But just like that date, I was wooed. I was surprised. And I was smitten by the time I tied off. No weight on my shoulders. No weight on my back. Just a spiderweb of wonders holding this overtired preschooler to my back.

Now I’m gonna be honest. I took her down after 30 minutes to try on coats and put her back up in a ruck tied with a knotless finish. It was not great. It was painful like going to get tacos only to hear they are all out of steak. Yes, I’m still bitter. Not the carry for my big kiddo and my picky shoulders. But this is my ultimate base size wrap right now.

Then was Blast. I don’t have any wearing photos as I broke my cell phone, but we wore this around the house to clean and for nap time. It’s thickness personified. It definitely wrapped short for me, but held a great half-knot with ease. Wrapping with it wasn’t as effortless, but there was no need to adjust or be careful. She went up and she stayed up. We bounced, swayed, cried and sighed. Blast was a rock. I think this would be a great option in a short size for a rock solid torso carry. Or a ruck tied at shoulder. Multiple-pass carries just weren’t happening for us in this.

Oh, that’s right. What does all this have to do with my babywearing career?

When I started wearing, I looked for wraps like Blast: thick, solid, sturdy, unmoving. When I was inexperienced and impatient, they held my daughter comfortably. Now toward the end, I look for wraps like Daybreak: thin yet strong, glidey, functional and not just aesthetically pleasing. 

I have always been a brand loyalist. I have bought multiples of one company, sold them all to fund multiples from another and then sold all of those to buy multiples from another company. I’m a serial monogamist. I will make a relationship out of dust and a piece of twine. But you can choose. You can love one brand and another and even a third. Your cred as a wrapper or wearer doesn’t diminish because you love Bijou and three other brands plus own a Kinderpack. And it doesn’t diminish because you have your One Wrap, the only one you own. YOU make the carrier, not the other way around. YOU make this community. Swim against the tide or explore a new stream altogether.

My advice would be: embrace the change. Try the wrap you never thought you would. Challenge yourself to try a wrap quality you are iffy about. And at the end of it all, remember: our differences are what make this community better. It’s what makes it worth the journey.

Oh, and here come more pictures.

Courtesy of Cleo @motherlilove

If you've spent any time in The Pavo Society as of late then I'm sure you've seen my not so small love affair with Galax Cobalt. Like the other wraps out of the Dobby collection, Galax is thin, light and quite airy, even see through! (though phlox is a bit thinner/airier).

If you are into stretch and recoil; Galax will be right up your alley and moldability is a given. As if this wasn't already super well suited for hot weather, the supportive and forgiving nature of its wrapping qualities knock it out the park. (I don’t often use the word cush but I think it's applicable here.)