BABYWEARING DURING TRAVELLING

(All these happened in late July)


It was a last minute notice for a meeting in Langkawi.....after checking a couple of airlines tickets and my bank account, I knew we have to do these all by ourselves.
We have to limit our luggage and after much consideration I took 1 ring sling (RS) , my vatanai wrap and 1 chunei just in case my hubby decided to wear it (he never go near other stash)

So my hubby drove way up north (with all of us of course) started around 10pm at night and reached Kuala Kedah at 5.30am (few times sleeping in the RnR)

It was very challenging to bring 3 growing girls, 1 tot and 1 baby for a holiday particularly when you have to take ferry across the ocean.
Alhamdulillah, after one and half hour, we all reached there safely without any 'messy' incident inside the cruise.



The meeting was on Saturday and Sunday but we decided to stay a day longer to explore Langkawi.

OK...back to babywearing ....

I wrapped most of the time....and I mostly did back carry.....

So here are some tips that I want to share :

1. Be brave and confident on yourself.Backcarry is not hard after all particularly if you got familiar with it beforehand.

2.Be prepared to wrap at any odd place.I have wrapped in the toilet - the dry area with my daughter have to hold the tail for me, on the back (?bonet) of the car - make sure it is not hot and spread your wrap properly , on the bench at the jetty before we took into the boat for a 2 hour ride to explore the Kilim Geoforest park.

3.Wear a proper attire....I found that two pieces attire, particularly with pants is the most appropriate attire for back carry eventhough I did wrap when I was in my jubah...a handful of times without much difficulty.



And also wear a proper hijab ... you dont want to compromise your aurat due to babywearing and actually you dont have to...
As for me, I found that a simple "sarung' hijab is the best - without the brooch to be on my way of wrapping and it covers well too.But I only have a couple of that , if I have to put on the hijab with brooch, I pinned it to be a 'sarung' hijab .

Personally, (solely personal opinion) , I think that back carry is more 'aurat-friendly' than front carry, as during back carry, with proper hijab , the prominent front part is fully covered.
Eventhough with tibetan tie, I did not feel weird with my hijab on.And I can somehow placed the 'shoulder part' of my hijab to cover the shouldre strap, so the covering was perfect.

For front carry, sometime I felt uncomfy because when I strap my baby onto my chest, the B somehow get compressed to the side and it did not look nice...(If you know what I mean ..he..he..)....so sometime I need to spread the shoulder wing to cover it and it did look weird sometime.

Care to give me any tips on that?

4. Watch your steps and take a very good care of yourself.
Just because your baby is with you....so whenever you are hiking of jungle tracking take extra precaution because if you fall , your baby will fall too.
But this is a general reminder, babywearing or not ....at any point of time, whenever your are holding your baby...you must take care of yourself.

5. Please always check your wrap work after you done with it before you take a walk.
You can check thru mirror if it's available or else ask other person such as your hubby or children to make sure that you have done it right.

On and off recheck again whenever you felt uncomfy.
If you dont get it right the first time, dont give up...untie and retry...most of the time you seldom need to do it more than twice.

6. If you dont find a proper place for unwrap your baby from the back, ask your hubby to hold your baby while you unwrap your work.
If not, find a proper place preferably one with sofa so you can seat and untie your baby.

7..Don't hesitate to wear your baby because it is a life saver during travelling and holiday and particularly if you have small baby that need holding all the time, as stroller is out of question.
Like many moms said - BABYWEARING IS FREEDOM and I will add BABYWEARING IS FREEDOM AND ACT OF LOVE.


So I backcarried (BC) Wafa during our trip to the peak of Gunung Mat ...(forgot the name) , via cable car.
Wafa seemed to enjoy the sceneries from my back.


My baby was comfy , happy and sleepy too.
Besides, I have both of my hands free to hold my other kids or taking photo

I did not have problem sight seeing with my baby on my back...but OF COURSE I received curious stares....

I can climbed up and down the slopy track between the top cable station to the bridge safely as I can hold on to the rails whenever I was tired.



And my hands and arms were not tired from holding baby if I dont BW.

But the tracking were not easy for the kids...esp the younger ones..

So thank goodness my hubby brought the chunei and back carry my 2 year old Zulfa.

To make things more dramatic, my 5 year old Fairuz also getting tired and refused to walk, so my dearest hubby have to hand-held her in front while Zulfa was at his back.

My hubby is not a body builder but his loves for his children made him strong, I think .

Hopefully my daughters will remember their dad when he is old and frail and dont mind to carry him in whatever way he is comfy ...Insya allah (but hopefully we dont have to be in that phase - weak and frail and be a burden to everybody)

One Arabic couple felt so amazed looking at my hubby and offered to carry Fairuz, but as expected she cried and then my hubby have to carry her again.

The Arabic man said " Masya Allah...masya Allah.." repeatedly.

Our trip to the Underwater World was also an enjoyable ones...

With Wafa on my back, I practically could enjoy the visit and took photos.



Again, she fallen asleep in no time at my back.
The an hour tour was just like a breeze.



Next, was our 2 hour boat ride exploring the UNESCO-recognized world heritage geoforest.

We have to get on and off from the boat to visit few interesting sites such as the bat cave and the fish pond.

Again, babywearing is my life saver.I just concentrated to watch my steps and enjoyed the ride and my hubby took care the rest of my children.

Opss...beside watching my steps, I also have to watch my head when entering the darkness of the bat cave.Wafa was not crying though.


We also enjoyed the fish and eagle feeding demonstration by the tourist guide.


And again, Wafa dozed off.....thanks to the fresh-cause-us-sleepy ocean breeze.



Eventhough ,it was only a short trip for us but with babywearing, it had made my life much easier and the trip was enjoyable indeed.

We took ferry to Kuala Kedah late in the afternoon and I front carry Wafa this time because I did not want to make a scene of unwrap her inside the ferry.
Fortunately she slept all the way throughout the journey.
The air-cond was so cold and I wrap her tight to my body and she slept on my chest without any sound.I guess my heat gave such a comfort area for her to have a good sleep.
I need not to unwrap her along the way.

unfortunately, no photo for that.

So for mommies out there, you all should BW during travelling because it made your journey much much more easier.



p/s I dedicate this post to all moms and lovely friends in MBW.


Allahu'alam

Ummuzulfa
15 Sept 2009