Babywearing: About Tula Baby Carrier
[TRANSCRIPT OF ANSWER]
“Hey, it’s Brett Beeson, your babywearing coach here today on Birthpedia, I’m going to bring you a full tutorial of the brand new baby Tula baby carrier called the Explorer carrier. I can’t wait to show you. This carrier is bringing us more positions, more features still with the baby tool is sleek, simplistic pattern. Let’s go check it out.
All right, so here is baby tool explore carrier. Let’s see all the things this baby has to offer. I can’t wait. All right.
How to set the Hood In the right position?
First things first I like to talk about the hood and get it out of the way for demonstration purposes. So I’m going to show you how the hood attaches and then detaches and we’ll get it out of our way.
When the carrier is in use, the hood can just come up and it has cam snaps on the end here. These cam snaps here will directly coordinate with the cam snaps on the strap. So when the carriers in use you can just buckle the hood however loose or tight you need it to be. So the hood attaches by just a little loop right on the inside of the carrier here. So to get the hood off and on, it’s just as simple as unsnapping the snap and pulling the hood out of the loop.
Setting up Cushion on the Inside of Carrier
I want to show you, that there is also an additional loop and that would be used for if the carrier is in a larger baby position. Um, but for newborn, we would put the carrier on the first, the lowest setting. So like I said, we’re just going to take this foot off and set it aside for the purposes of a demonstration. It kind of mucks things up and makes it hard to see what I’m doing. Okay, so the support pillow arrives in the out position.
For newborns, We’re going to want to tuck that to the end position so it just comes unsnapped on either side here and we can just flip it over and it would be tucked in. I’m going to turn the carrier around and show you how it tucks in, located just underneath where the hood loops are on the inside of the carrier. There’s a little pocket here.
The back of the cam snaps for where the snaps on the front are there. So this is just to tuck those little cam snaps into so that wouldn’t be pressing on the baby inside of the carrier. So it just tucks in that little pocket on both sides. So now this cushion is on the inside of the carrier.
The purpose of this is for the brand new four to six-week-old newborn heads. This gives us just a little bit of extra cushion behind the baby’s head.
Settings to Carry your Baby Facing Outside or Inside
Another one of the new features of the Tula explore carrier is the ability for children to face the world to face forward. So to accommodate the different shapes that the baby takes inside the carrier, they needed to adjust the way the body panel bends and flows.
So they added this button feature. So any carry where the baby is facing the world or outward, we would actually connect this to the inside button and any carry where the baby would be facing the parent. We would always have this on the outside button position.
So since we’re working with a newborn baby today, we’re going to make sure that this is on the outside position like it is and we’re also going to make sure that our carrier is in the smallest seat setting. So Tula baby carrier gave us really awesome adjustability for the seat. Um, this is already in the small setting and I’m going to show you how we got it there.
So on the inside of the waistband, Tula baby carrier just installed this nice piece of webbing and the body panel actually just loops around it. Inside of here are three cam snaps, little plastic snaps, and for the inward-facing position you just slide this in and attach it to the smallest setting.
When the baby gets a little bit bigger so that the carrier goes need a knee, you would go to the middle setting. And then finally, once the baby sits on assisted and can open their hips all the way, you would adjust it to the widest outward setting.
So today working with a newborn, we’re going to make sure that both of these cams are securely snapped into the smallest setting. I’m going to check and make sure that is snapped in there. It’s very important that these be symmetrical. We want both sides to be in the same setting so that the baby always sits symmetrically in the center of the carrier.
So now the carrier is actually ready for us to put. on a soft structured carrier, Always applies with the waistband facing in towards the wearer so that the label folds out over top of it.
How to Safely Wear a Tula Baby Carrier?
So to put the carrier on, we’re going to place the carrier higher than you wear your pants. Okay. The baby, in order for their head to be up here high enough, close enough to kiss my baby’s bottom is going to be here. So if I put the carrier down here at that blue Jean waist space, my baby’s going to be way too low and not in a safe position. So we always want to bring the carrier up as the baby goes in.
If we need to let it come down a little, it’s very easy to do. But if we put the baby in too low, it’s really challenging to bring them up to the right spot. So my hot tip is to always make sure to apply the carrier nice and high to start with.
Safety Mechanism While Wearing Baby Carrier
So we’re going to come around and I’m going to give myself just a little extra length to work with so I can show you guys this buckle.
Tula gave us a really awesome safety mechanism. There’s an elastic here. I want you to always use this. We’re going to go through the elastic and make sure that that elastic comes all the way to the outside of that entire buckle system. And then we’re going to of course clip. Make sure we hear it latch and give it a good test poll. So once we give that a good testable, we can take our Slack out, give it a little tighter. And I usually tighten as I’m like bringing my carrier back around into its optimum positioning in the front. So this is always a good time, ladies and gentlemen, give yourself a moment.
Fix your shirt underneath your carrier. Once you get the baby in here, this becomes an impossible process. And then you’re frustrated in fidgety and your baby’s frustrated and fidgety and nobody wins.
So how do I look right, so we’re ready to go? The carrier’s nice and high. My straps are ready and out here. I’ve put a little bit of extra length into my straps so that as I apply the carrier I have room to work. I’m going to show you how to adjust that. My other hot tip for soft structure carrier is to loosen these before you put your carrier on each time and it just allows you the ease of working with it and not trying to act like a T Rex climbing into your carrier. So now it’s time to pick up the baby.
Securing Healthy Position for Baby
Are you ready? All right. Today I am going to be working with a tropical baby. This is a weighted doll. I use a way to doll in our tutorials for the purpose of getting things done and in a quiet manner.
Babies are fussy. They make a lot of noise. You need to understand that. That’s okay. Allow your baby time between each step to settle and sooth. Don’t let yourself get frustrated. I’m going to move through quickly because my baby isn’t making noise, but you take as much time as you need and hit pause as many times as you want to. Here we go.
Protect Baby’s Head, Neck, Leg, and Airway
So we’re going to position our baby on our body in the same position that we hold them all day. It’s right here in the middle, right on our chest, close enough to kiss and I can absolutely see baby’s airway. Most babies naturally put their hands near their face if they don’t. I generally encourage people to go ahead and ask baby if they’re willing to put their hands beside their face. It helps them learn how to balance as soon as you start wearing them. So once baby is secure and settled in sooth and I feel like I’m ready for the next step, I’m going to take one hand.
It does not matter which, I’m right hand dominant, so I’m going to use my right hand and what I want to do is find the waistband of the carrier. So we’re going to reach right under baby’s leg and we’re just going to find the waistband under the baby’s leg. Even if the leg is really talked and tiny because newborn baby legs are so tiny little chicken legs, we just want to gently reach under that leg so we can get the carrier under while we can get our hand underneath the carrier.
So if we can touch the waistband, you know you’re coming under it. So if you just glide under the carrier, it allows you to smooth the carrier up around baby and all the way to the top. So when you get here, you’ll know this, my hand, my left hand that was holding a baby is kind of coming out at the same time that my right hand is here to replace that protection and the straps look at this.
Adjust the Straps and Buckle It Safely
They’re just magically right exactly where I need them to be. So I can very, very efficiently and calmly not juggle this baby around and get those straps up and over each shoulder. I guarantee this baby would still be sleeping if it were real. So with one hand, I can give myself a quick little check. We’re going to check on these details later, but I make sure that I’ve got two feet out and that feet haven’t gotten caught in the carrier on accident. And then I don’t have a fold here. So this is definitely smooth all the way up to the top. So now I need to secure my straps.
The extra length is going to come in handy right now because I want to pick a hand, either hand support the baby with one and then bring my opposite hand above my head to find these two buckles. So with one hand, I can reach, I’ve got a lot of extra movement in the strap here I can find one buckle and then I want to find the other. Once both of them are, on one hand, I can absolutely totally support the baby because I’m holding these straps tight. Okay, baby didn’t move. So for just a moment, I can take my hands off the babies so that I can safely use both hands to buckle this class in the back.
Alright, then I bring one hand back down to support baby before I drop that clasp down behind me. So now I’m buckled in the back. I know I can’t lose the baby and I’m free to get the baby tightened into this carrier so that we want to take one hand or the other, doesn’t matter which press the baby a little bit to us and up.
And we’re just going to grab this extra strap length here and give it a little tightened by a couple of inches. And then I’m going to switch the weight of the baby into this hand and I’m going to go to the other side and bring that in a couple of inches as well.
Check for Comfort and Symmetrical Carry
So we want to go back and forth all the while keeping a little bit of pressure on baby here and bringing each side in just a little bit at a time. We want to make sure to get a nice symmetrical carry.
So once we’ve gotten this tight and snug and we feel comfortable, we want to do a couple of baby checks, we want to take the calves, push up on the knees and give them a little rotate. This makes sure that the hips tilt under and the spine gets that nice curvature shape that we really like to see.
Once we’ve adjusted each side adequately and we feel like we’ve got a nice symmetrical carry, we’re good to go.
I want to point out something that I get a lot of questions about from students in class and consulting work. A lot of carriers feature this handy dandy little elastic at the end of the adjusting straps.
Wind up the Messy Straps
So the purpose of this, when you’re done, you’ve got a lot of straps hanging about and it’s a little bit messy. So the reason this is here is so that you can gather up and wind up your straps, your excess length and take this fancy little elastic and wrap that around. Hot tip, you heard it here, ladies and gentlemen.
That’s what that’s for and it allows those to be a lot less messy looking than when they’re loose.
Other Features of Carrier for Newborns to 45 pounds Baby
So the tool Explorer does offer this nice little cushion for the first two months that’s tucked in and it’s allowing us that extra little bit of newborn head control that is so important in the first few weeks and it flips out so easily. We saw it in the beginning for an older baby.
This just comes right out and the cam snaps are right here on the front to hold that down for an even older baby because the Explorer does allow us to carry newborns from seven all the way up to 45 pounds.
This also will go into an up position and on the inside right here there is a little set of snaps under this little pocket and you can actually attach this cushion, almost easily in an upward position for an older baby to give them a little bit of extra head control while sleeping or even for a taller toddler to help them have a little bit more back support.
Clearly this would not be a safe thing to do with a newborn, so for our newborn purposes, obviously this would still be down for the first two weeks. We would have it on the inside position. And then for the bulk of time, it’s just going to be turned out in this out position. The hood can attach right here. So it would lay over top of all of this and nothing would get in your way of anything.
And I’m really, I think we’re good to go explore. Thanks, baby Tula, get it. Explore for the Explorer carrier. So funny. I absolutely love it.
Know the Speaker
Anyway, I’m Brittany your babywearing coach. Thanks for coming over to Birthpedia to check out our full tutorial of the Tula Baby carrier explore. Check out all of our other tutorials here. We can’t wait to see you and you can always follow me @tropicalbabywearing.com just remember, knowledge cast out fear.
So here at Birthpedia, we want people to know the knowledge that you have received here from us today can cast away your fear. Try something new. But that baby on.”
