Really want back carry to work

[MN BabyDust]

Babywearers, do you have any tricks you can share with me for back carries in a wrap? I feel like it's never quite right. I've watched a bunch of youtube videos and looked at tons of websites like wrapababy and wrapsody, but something just isn't working. Either it is uncomfortable for me, or looks uncomfortable for DD (sometimes there are even red marks on her legs.) I've been doing either the back cross carry or rucksack. It never seems tight enough. The first knot never stays quite right. She is able to wiggle to one side and be all off balance. Like with the cross carry, the side where the tail goes back under my arm leaves her arm free on that side and she always ends up lopsided from leaning to grab stuff. And when I double back to make the crosses, they never stay nice and fanned out across her back, they always just bunch at her legs. She doesn't seem to enjoy being carried in it all that much, but does tolerate being in it for about a half hour. I was hoping to stick with the woven wrap and not shell out for another carrier, but maybe I have to...

[mambera]

Are you doing a back wrap cross carry or a reinforced rucksack carry?  It sounds from your description like you might be doing the second one.

In the back wrap cross carry the first pass across the baby comes *under* your arms, the ruck straps go over your shoulders and back down across the baby, spreading over the back/bum and bunching under the legs.

In the reinforced ruck the first pass comes *over* your shoulders, then the ruck straps come under your arms and cross over the baby, spreading over the bum and bunching under the legs.

If you are doing a reinforced ruck I think switching to a BWCC will fix your problems.  By bringing the passes over your shoulders you will be able to trap the baby's arms under them and secure her into the wrap more.  Also I don't know how big your baby is but I notice if the baby is too small there is not room to spread an underarm cross pass before it goes under the leg, and it always ends up bunched.  By having the cross pass come down over your shoulder first there will be more room for it to spread before it has to go under the baby's leg.  HTH