In Part One of my series on babywearing, we talked about some of the great reasons why parents choose to wear their babies.  I hope you got to read through some of those articles as I think you will find them inspiring and motivating.  I especially like this "sling tip" from the article at askdrsears.com – "The womb lasts eighteen months: Nine months inside the mother and nine months on the outside."  Those of us who practice babywearing can tell you that those first nine months of life really are when babies tend to crave most intensely the closeness that slinging your baby provides.

So once you’ve decided you want to take the plunge into wearing your baby, the next choice you will need to make is choosing a carrier.  This can be an overwhelming and daunting task as there are quite literally hundreds of carriers to choose from.

Many of you may be most familiar with this front-pack style of carrier:

Perhaps you have seen this style of carrier in form of the Baby Bjorn or Evenflo Snugli on the shelves in the baby section at your favorite baby gear store. This style of carrier is easy to find, but you may find you are dissatisfied with the longevity it can provide.  Many parents find that baby becomes too heavy to wear in this carrier once they have surpassed the fifteen or twenty pound mark.  I think my oldest daughter, Dacey, was about sixteen pounds when I found I could no longer carry her in our Snugli. 

Once she outgrew the Snugli, I began to research my options for our next carrier, and I found there are many on the market today that can take a child from infancy to toddlerhood.  Allow me to emphasize the word many.  Like I mentioned earlier, it can be quite overwhelming to decide if the style you need is a ring sling, pouch sling, wrap, Asian Baby Carrier (also known as mei tai), soft-structured carrier, or some kind of hybrid of one or more of the main styles!

Throughout the rest of this series on babywearing, I am going to spotlight each of the main types of carriers to give each style the in-depth attention that each requires.  In the meantime, check out these resources collected by thebabywearer.com as good places to start your own research:
*What type of carrier is right for me?  A brief guide  
* thebabywearer.com’s comparison of baby carriers
* Beyond the Bjorn: How & Why to babywear

Or you may find it helpful to visit the forums at TBW and read feedback from some very knowledgeable babywearers on topics ranging from wearing more than child at a time to accommodating disabilities, special needs, and chronic illness: Babywearing Basics forums

Now I would love to hear from all the readers who want to share their carrier recommendations!  Do you have a carrier you absolutely love?  Please come over to Blissfully Domestic Living and tell me about it!  Or leave a comment with your recommendation.  You may find yourself blissfully linked in one of my upcoming articles!