Yes, You Can - Wear Two Children at One Time

Happy Blog Day!

Me, tandem my youngest 2 in 2 SSC

I've loved seeing so many of you in our Facebook group come out of hiding and getting the opportunity to meet you in real life - whether it is at the Zoo, at Target, or wherever. I love putting real faces to the Facebook names I see every day. I get ridiculously excited when I see someone out babywearing, and I don't know them from Adam, then post in the Facebook group a comment "Shout out to the wrapping mama at Target!" and discover that the mama is indeed a member of our group already. I can't wait to meet more of you soon, and see many of you again. This growing, local, babywearing community has become such a wealth of friendships and shared knowledge in my life since I've become a parent. I'm thankful for each of you and the role you play in my life, and I really enjoy watching other families gain friends and find common interests in our group. Ya'll are just awesome.



Those of you who know me - even if it's just in passing - probably know I have three young kids. My oldest is 4.5, his sister is 2.5, and the baby is 16 months. Since they are so close in age, quite often at least two of them want or need to be held at one time. If I did not have baby carriers, my arms would either be very strong, or be falling off, due to the strain. I often get asked: "how did you DO that?" or "can I do that?" and "does it hurt your back?" . . . The answers are, respectively: very carefully, of course, and no, not at all. In fact, they generally balance each other out and the weight is distributed over my whole upper body and hips, making it actually not that much of strain to wear 50+ lbs. of kiddo.

Me, with my 2 year old and squish
Didymos Waves Tramonto 7

When I started out tandem wearing, I wore 2 kids in a long woven wrap - a size 7 (which is 5.2 meters, roughly). It seemed pretty easy to go from wearing one to two with a few adjustments. As my kids got a little older, more mobile, and heavier, and I got more experienced and with a more diverse (though not larger) selection of carriers, my preferences for tandem wearing changed. These days, when I tandem, at least one of the carriers is a buckle carrier. I do either two buckle carriers, a buckle carrier and a short wrap, or a buckle carrier and a ring sling - depending on what I have handy at the moment.




The next common question I hear, "can I wear my two children with _______ carrier and _____ carrier?"  - the answer is yes. Honestly, if you have two carriers, you can wear two kids. The only combination that is not advisable is two stretchy wraps (although you can wear two small babies in one stretchy wrap) since stretchy wraps like a Moby or Boba wrap are not meant for back carries. 

You can do:
One long woven or stretchy wrap
One long woven and one short woven
One woven wrap of any size and a ring sling
One woven wrap and a buckle carrier
One woven wrap and a mei tai
Two woven wraps
Two Mei Tai
Two Buckle Carriers
Two Ring Slings
A Buckle Carrier and a Ring Sling
A Buckle Carrier and a Mei Tai
A Ring Sling and a Mei Tai
A Podegai and an Onbu (just had to throw these lesser known but great carriers in there for fun)

Amber, tandem 2 woven wraps

Heidi, using 2 SSC

Me, using a wrap and a RS.
Here you can see how I draped the ring sling over the
 baby on the back for added support

Kelly, wrap + ring sling. In this case, she did the ring sling first.
Either way is ok. Totally Personal preference.



Melissa, tandem in a wrap and a SSC

Victoria, tandem in one long woven wrap

Vilma, tandem in 2 SSC

Really, if you have two carriers, you can make it work, trust me.

There is a great group on Facebook just for Tandem Babywearing. Many of the mamas there have twins or multiples, others like me have closely spaced kids. Either way they are a great resource for tips, tricks, and ideas for wearing more than one baby.

The Nitty Gritty

Disclaimer: because. safety. - This post is meant to answer questions parents and caregivers frequently ask about tandem wearing. If you want to try tandem wearing, but are not confident yet in your wearing skills with ONE baby, please come to a meeting or playdate and we will be happy to help you with your questions and concerns. We will even gladly get you started tandem wearing. When you start, it's very helpful to have spotters that know what concerns to look for and to help you trouble shoot. And keep your wearees happy while you get things figured out.

First: before you head off attempting super-parenting tandem-wearing awesomeness, get comfortably proficient wearing one baby in any carriers you are going to try to use for tandeming. Moms of twins: you don't have as much time to do this, as I'm sure you want to wear both at once as soon as humanly possible. There are several carries you can do with two babies on front that are a great starting place. Front Wrap Cross Carry and Pocket Wrap Cross Carry can be done with two babies. Amanda's Hip Carry uses one wrap and a large sling ring (www.slingrings.com), just to name a few.

Now, which baby to wear where? If you are doing the more common tandem option of one baby on front, one baby on back, I'd plan on putting the baby on back that will not want to be up and down a lot. This often means the younger, less mobile baby. If you are wearing twins, you may want to put the one that is calmer back there (assuming you have babies of different temperaments). Parents of twins may discover one twin prefers to be on the back and the other prefers to be worn on her parent's front.

Depending on which combination of carriers you are using, the logistics of which carrier to put on next is the next step.  In nearly all cases if you are tandeming with two carriers, you want to get the front carrier situated as much as possible first.

If you are using a long woven wrap on the front, you will want to get it pre-tied as much as possible - that is, get it situated so it's ready for a baby. If you go to THIS pic-torial, you can get to step 6. wait to carry on with the "insert baby" until you have baby on your back situated. This works well with Front Wrap Cross Carry, Pocket Wrap Cross Carry, and Front Cross Carry. You may also want to do this with a ring sling, though often I unthread my ring sling and drape it and rethread it over the child in back for an extra layer of security and I find it easier to adjust. (but in the hot summer weather, you may not want to add a layer of fabric over the baby in back). If you are using a mei tai or a buckle carrier on the front, go ahead and fit the waist band where and as snug as you like it.

Next . . .

Get the baby (or toddler) on your back using your preferred method and type of carrier, however you typically use it. Once you and baby are good and comfortable, you can add the baby to the carrier on your front.

Why do you add the baby on the front last? Most of us bend over a bit to get and situate a baby on our back. I find it to be much less challenging to try to keep a hand on a baby on my front, one on my back, as I'm adjusting a carrier . . .  than to just focus on one baby at a time. That is why I do  my steps in that order: front carrier, back carrier+baby, front baby.

Once everyone is good and snug and happy, off you go! I tend to wear the child on front that might want up and down, or needs to be fed, etc. For that reason, I prefer to use carriers on my front that are easily put on and taken off, like buckles, ring slings, or short woven wraps threaded through the straps of a buckle carrier on my back.

How do you get everyone down?

Front baby first, then the baby on the back. If, for some reason the baby on back needs off before the baby on front, it's best to ask for help. An alternative would be to sit down on a couch or bed and undo the carrier on back. This works best if your child is sitting on their own.

This is a pretty inclusive file on Tandem Wearing, including links to great videos from Babywearing 102: HERE

Babywearing Blog showing double ring sling carriers and tandem with 1 long woven wrap

Tandem wearing has been a life saver for me, with 3 young children. It's saved my arms and sanity more than once. That said, it takes practice to do easily and well, much like anything that has to do with babywearing (or parenting, for that matter). It is of utmost importance that you get proficient with 1 baby + 1 carrier before complicating it with a second baby and carrier, but ultimately tandem wearing is very doable.

Upcoming Events:

 Thursday, July 24th - 10 a.m. at the LDS Church on Broad River Road - we'll be helping you with basic wrap carries, and there will be a demonstration for kids, by kids, for wearing their dolls.

 Saturday, July 26th - Join us as we take a road trip to the beach and meet up with the Charleston Babywearing group. We'll be splashing in at the fantastic Isle of Palms.

Tuesday, July 29th - Come play with us at the Clemson Children's Garden. This is a great play area with lots for kids to discover and plenty of shade.

Rachel - Ring Sling

Laura - Rebozo

Saturday August 9th - 10 a.m. at the LDS Institute of Religion on Assembly Street - we'll be demonstrating and trouble shooting how to do a rebozo knot and how to use ring slings - both great options for short carries that don't use much fabric and are therefore great carries/carriers in the summer heat.