I'm drowning in fabric!

[MarcyC]

Awhile back I bought this huge piece of fabric thinking I would fashion my own wrap. It's about 36 inches wide by about 12 feet or something. It's navy blue, so I've pretty got the ocean in my house.

Well, I drug it out thinking i could do a nice back carry in it.

It. Is. Not. Happening.

No way, no how....it's not gonna work.

I'm horribly uncoordinated. I sit here and watch all these youtube videos of people getting their kids into back carries with wraps and it looks so easy and then I try and my kid falls on the floor and bonks his head and we both end up crying. Not pretty.

So.....obviously I'm getting rid of the monster! (no, not the baby, the fabric!)

Anyway, I'm in love with the bundleboo or bundledoo or bumbledoo or whatever it's called and I like the Walter's Organic. I like them because they have leg openings and they looks much easier and more secure.
'
Bottom line, my question is: If I cannot figure out a regular wrap, will I be able to figure out one of those mentioned or should I just forget the whole wrap thing?

[limabean]

A standard Moby wrap is 5.5 yards (so, about 16.5 feet) by 23 inches, I think. So you could cut your fabric lengthwise to 23 inches and see if that helps.

Which instructions are you following? Here is the link to the instructions on the Moby site. It does feel like a lot of fabric as you're putting it on, but once it's in place I never thought it felt cumbersome (although it would be hot for summertime). I used a homemade Moby-style wrap almost exclusively for the first 6 months and loved it.

ETA: Is this for the baby who was born in August 2007? If so, he's probably way too big for a Moby-style wrap unless the fabric you have is woven rather than stretchy. Stretchy wraps usually become way too uncomfortable for the wearer once the baby hits a little over 15 pounds.

[MarcyC]

Well, I got the fabric extra long and wide because he's a tall baby (already 3 feet tall) and I wanted enough fabric to come up over his shoulders and because I'm plus sized (48-inch waist) and I wanted something that would wrap around me .

Anyway, I'm throwing in the towel (or should I say the fabric) on this one. And so I really wanted to know if I should pursue the whole "wrap" thing (by maybe getting a wrap with holes) or just fuhgeddaboudit...Thanks!!!

[MommaShark]

I hate wraps!!!! I love a Mei Tai, Pikkolo or Ergo.......

[KristyDi]

I have no experience with the Wraps with holes, so no advise there.

If you wanted to make the one you have work I'd do the following.

1. Cut the width to 30 inches at most

2. learn a front carry so you get the feel of wrapping first (you won't want to carry your big kid around on the front much, but you'll get the feel of how to handle the wrap with out the worry of dropping a kid off your back.)

3. learn the back wrap cross carry w/ chest belt. The chest belt will secure the kid on the first pass . Practice while kneeling on the floor. Shorter to fall if the kiddo bails.

If you're really done with this one, I suggest you put it away and get a mei tei. I think some of the skills you'll learn with the MT will carry over if you want to try wrapping again later. It does take practice, so don't feel too discouraged. It took me several of weeks of trying once every few days before I was any good at all.

[Devaskyla]

Which carry are you trying to do? Some of them need a lot of fabric (fwcc, bwcc) but something like a rucksack doesn't need nearly as much & a nice, wide wrap is really good for a ruck.

[baturay]

A wide wrap, like what an experienced wrapper would consider a really nice wide wrap is like 29-30 inches, so 36 inches is really way too wide even for a tall baby. I can wrap my 4 year old in a 28 wide wrap and feel like I'm using a wide wrap. It'd be difficult for me to use a wrap that's as wide as 36 inches. Also, for a long wrap for you (and most people actually) you need more like 15 feet (which is the common length for a long wrap ~ 4.6m). So, I think for you to give it a good fair chance, you need to trim your wrap to 28 inches (yes even with a tall baby) and if you'd like to use the length you currently have, try doing the one called Short Cross Carry (SCC) and for a back carry try rucksack or BWCC.