Marsupial Mamas Exclusive: Natibaby Midnight Owls

Marsupial Mamas sent me another wrap to wear and review for them! This time I got to test out the Marsupial Mamas exclusive Natibaby Midnight Owls.

The wrap I tested is a size 4 which is a great size for me since I can do single layer carries and can still bust out a double hammock tied at shoulder to get a good feel for double layer carries and grip/glide ratio.

The first thing I love about this wrap is the design. I know a lot of people in the babywearing world tend to enjoy brighter patterns or more "cheerful" designs, I however, am not one of those people.  I *love* the dark colors of this design and the owls are super cute.  The darker colors also make it a FANTASTIC option for a wrap that will see things like summer berry picking (and eating), muddy days, and icky chores around the house. As a bonus, it is 100% cotton so it is still easy care and can be tossed right in the washing machine.

I know Natibaby is known for having a wide variety of wraps and wrapping qualities, I know I was scared off a little bit when I heard of their wraps being "beastly", but what I have learned by having this here is that each wrap is it's own "thing".  Midnight Owls is nice and floppy and very soft.  It is what I would consider to be a wrap that is right on the edge of thin and medium for thickness. It isn't what I would call "airy" but it isn't super dense either and I think the weave wouldn't be very pull prone.

This wrap has a lot of diagonal stretch which makes it awesome for moldablity but doesn't have much top to bottom/side to side stretch so it doesn't sag at all even with a heavy toddler.

I found Midnight Owls to be perfectly comfortable in single layer carries due to the lack of sagging mentioned above and the density kept it from getting diggy with my 25 pound 19 month old (disclaimer here is I don't have picky shoulders).

For multi-pass carries this wrap was wonderful. The passes went into place easily enough and despite a pretty flat weave it had a good amount of grip once in place. It also knots well, which is worth noting, as not all my tie at shoulder carries are easy to tie for my strange wrists but I had no trouble with this wrap.

In all I would say this wrap is perfectly suitable for a new baby but would really shine in the 6 month - 2yr + range. It would easily take all life with a bigger baby and toddler has to throw at it and still keep on happily trucking!

Baby-Doo

I had the chance to test/review a Baby-Doo woven wrap for Marsupial Mamas  for 2 weeks and was thrilled for a chance to try out a brand I haven't ever used before! Baby-Doo is a budget wrap, at only $85 for a 4.4m wrap, it's a fantastic price.

The first thing I noticed was how remarkably soft this wrap was, I even went so far as to ask Marsupial Mamas if it was broken in.  Turns out it had only been worn once for photos and washed once. It is a super snuggly soft wrap, in a way it reminds me of my LL Bean flannel sheets. Obviously the wrap is a little bit thicker and more wrap-like, but to touch it the feel is very similar.

Basic Ruck!

I used this wrap with my 25 pound 34" tall 18 month old (official as of today!) and was very pleased with the support it provided. I didn't experience any dig even in a simple ruck.  In fact, we got our first wrap nap in a good 8+ months in that ruck.

Super loose top rail. Still very comfy.

Where this wrap really shined was in double hammock. It was absolutely solid while still incredibly comfortable. There was a *little* more grip than I care for with the second pass but it wasn't a fight to get the pass in place or anything, I am just a glide fan ;-) .  There is almost no width wise or length wise stretch but there is a little bit of diagonal stretch which is great for getting a good chestpass in double hammock and for assisting in proper tightening with ease.

Flawless support with little effort!

I did try it in kangaroo. It worked well enough but I had a bit of trouble tightening due to the grip and my lack of skill with kangaroo ;-)  I wanted to try it in a single layer front carry though so I gave it a go!

Sloppy kangaroo

In all this wrap would be fantastic for a beginner and the colors make it easy to know one rail from the other, making learning tightening pretty simple.  It would be a great wrap for an experience wrapper too, as an inexpensive option for all things toddler, mud puddles, and spring while still giving all the support that an experienced wrapper has come to expect.

Soft enough for a teeny tiny squish and strong enough for the biggest of toddlers!

Woven Wings: Mr Jackson

Shepherd's carry and natural lighting.

I will start by saying that Mr Jackson is a wrap that I borrowed from a lovely winglet a few months ago and have thought about ever since and then I ended up buying one of my own so this review is a little bit biased ;-)


Mr J, as he is commonly called, is a linen cotton blend wrap from the Beatrix Potter line from Woven Wings. He is a lovely navy blue and dark green geo patterned wrap.

Initially he feels a little bit "rough" thanks to the linen but breaks in very quickly. Once broken in he becomes very soft and floppy.

There is very little stretch to Mr J and passes glide well (though not like butter) for multi-pass carries.  There is a little bit of grip, for example, when tying ruck under bum I don't have to worry about that first knot slipping while I go to make a second knot, it's not going to budge while I double knot.

Basic ruck tied under bum

There is little to no ace-bandage in Mr J, which isn't really surprising given the linen content and lack of stretch.  This is actually the most interesting thing to me about the wrap because typically ace-bandage is my #1 favorite thing in a wrap, but Mr J has won my heart anyway.

There is plenty of support with this linen blend, even with my 25 pound toddler and sometimes when people hear "support" they think "dig" and Mr J has very little to no dig at all in my opinion. I used this wrap in all sorts of carries from shepherds to FWCCTUB to basic RTUB and it was perfect in all of them.

The colors are almost good enough to distract from the lint on my shirt.

I spent a great deal of time trying to articulate the kind of "soft" that this wrap is.  A lot of people say "blanket" soft but that's not the kind of soft that Mr J is. To me that makes me envision something squishy snuggly, which isn't what Mr J is, to me. He has plenty of cush but I wouldn't consider him blankety.  What I ended up realizing is that he is soft like my favorite pair of jeans. I have an ancient pair of American Eagle jeans that are thinner denim but have been worn very heavily over the many years I have had them.  Mr J is soft in that way. Inherently a little bit more dense than a blanket but still very floppy and comforting.

Mr Jackson is a wrap that I find amazing for toddlerhood and with heavier babies and still plenty gentle for a newborn.  The only thing I, personally, would miss from this as a squish wrap is moldibility because I love wraps that "hug" newborns when they are tiny.

The official kitty seal of approval.

Apple Blossom Wovens Morning Glory

So, I will start out by saying a lot of reviews that I have seen for this wrap compare it to handwovens, I haven't had a handwoven yet so I can't comment on how similar they are.  I can, however, compare it to a large variety of machine wovens!

Beautiful wrap!

I was lucky enough to temp trade for a beautiful Apple Blossom Wovens Morning Glory with grey weft. At a size 7, this wrap was MUCH longer than I typically work with as my base is a 5 though sometimes I work with 6s.  I was still able to try it out in all my usual carries, just with tails that go for DAYS, when I tried ruck tied tibetan knotless I still had tails to my ankles.  Worth noting, I hear they run long and this 7 measures at 5.57m STIH so I am inclined to agree.

When I first opened the package what struck me was how crazy thin the wrap was. It isn't as thin as some Didymos Indios that I have used, but I guess I was expecting something beefier than what came.  The wrap is impressively floppy and has a beautiful drape.  I found Morning Glory to have a good amount of stretch but not saggy, even in ruck with a 25 pound toddler.

I used Morning Glory for an hour-ish long walk in FWCC, without the passes spread, to see how it did and it held up really well.  I didn't figure on it holding up so well given how thin it feels but I had no ache in my shoulders or back and there wasn't even a smidge of dig anywhere, I found it very cushy though I hadn't expected it to be so.

Sorry for the dreadful lighting here!

It feels unlike most (machine) wovens I have used.  It is nothing like the feel of Pavo, Didymos, or Tekhni.  Out of the wraps that I have tried (which is quite a few) it feels most similar to Tiny Tiger American Beauty, though I found AB to have much more sag and not as nice a drape...plus Morning Glory is so much prettier!

The glide on Morning Glory is fantastic and it holds into place once you you are done. It makes an effortless chestpass as well, being extremely ace bandage-y. This was, perhaps, my favorite quality of this wrap. Those that know me, know I love Indio chestpasses, Morning Glory has taken my top spot for chestpasses, sorry Indio.

See? Perfection with ease. Even pre-coffee ;-)

I do feel like this wrap would pull pretty easily, though admittedly I have been babying this one in that regard since it isn't mine ;-) That said, it is very airy and I feel like it would be a great choice even in hot weather.  I have seen some mention that it seems narrow to them but I didn't find that to be an issue for me, granted I have been primarily using Woven Wings geos lately which are extremely narrow.

Width comparison with Woven Wings Hunca Munca

This wrap is absolutely squish worthy and holds up well with heavier kids.  I am not sure I would pick this as a shorty with a bigger baby but it would still rock an RRRR if you needed/wanted it to. This is absolutely a beginner friendly wrap but seasoned wrappers would love it as well.

PJs are the best.

Pavo Parterre Doe

I got a chance to try the legend that is Pavo Parterre Doe and of course was super excited to give it a go!

First and foremost, this is NOT a wrap for an inexperienced wrapper.  It requires real strand by strand tightening, and a lot of it at that.  It is also extremely dense and very heavy in hand.  All that said, it is full of support!

This wrap has amazing stretch and a lot of recoil, which is part of why strand by strand is so important.  I was also impressed wih the grip of Parterre.  It doesn't feel, in hand, like it would be very grippy compared to something like Fable or Gotham but once it's in place, it holds tight.  There is pretty good glide as well for getting second passes done, but anything with a second pass really requires a bit of patience and time to get everything right.  Parterre ROCKS a ruck in my opinion and is best suited to single layer carries.

The texture of this wrap is very different from most I have tried, even down to the noise of your hand rubbing against the fabric.  I don't consider this wrap to be "soft" nor very "mouldable" but it is very comfortable once you have your wrapee up.  The support is effortless and your little one feels weightless.  It has a fantastic shine/sheen as well.

Overall I think all experienced wrappers should have a chance to try this wrap.  Parterre is very different from most wraps out there and I best describe it as "intense".  I wouldn't consider this to be a squish worthy wrap but it would wrap your bigger toddler with ease!  I briefly considered wrapping my 65 pound 7 year old but decided since it wasn't my wrap maybe I shouldn't ;-)

Didymos Blackberry Indio v2

It's no secret, to those that know me, that I love thin wraps, so naturally when I heard that Didymos was coming out with a wool indio that was going to be pretty thin, I had to jump in and see what it was all about.

Blackberry Indio v2 is, indeed, very thin.  I weighed it in at 190gsm, with the disclosure that calculating gsm is still a bit new to me!  It is thin enough that when held up to the light I can see between the threads. Let it be known that I have put this wrap through a lot.  It is a size 4 and if there is a carry I am capable of doing in a size 4, I have done it with this wrap.  The color is very hard to pin down with regular lighting so I found outdoor shots were as close to true color as I was able to get.  It is much less purple than v1 and isn't really a color I would associate with blackberries, perhaps some just past ripe raspberries though!

To start with, this wrap has a LOT of diagonal stretch.  I didn't think it did on first wrapping but the more I broke it in the more it stretched.  What this means is stellar chestpasses every time with great ease.  Also, even with the amount of stretch that it has, I didn't find it sagging with my 24 pound toddler.

I also found this wrap to have minimal to no wool prickle at all.  I frequently wear on bare shoulders because I overheat very quickly while wearing so if there was going to be prickle, I would have felt it.  I have also briefly used Didymos Greenland Indio and Latte Indio and found those to have more of a prickly feeling, though they are very different, overall, from Blackberry v2.

Blackberry has great glide when doing passes and still holds a slipknot very well, especially being that it is so thin.  It has a very small knot and I found that it was fantastic at carries that tied under bum because there wasn't a big knot in my back.

I have had a couple of small difficulties with this wrap. The first is that since it is so thin *and* an indio, it pulls very easily.  If I am wrapping with this I prefer to keep my engagement ring on the counter until I am done.  The other issue I had is that because it is so thin and it's so easy to stuff it all in your hand for bunched passes etc, it can be easy to swap top rail with bottom rail in a carry like Charlies Cross Carry etc.  It's not really a huge deal and it is easy enough to fix once you figure it out, but a newer wrapper just learning back carries might get a little frustrated by this as they were learning.

I would rate this wrap as absolutely squish-worthy as it is extremely soft and very easy to wrap with.  I find it to to be toddler worthy with my 24 pound guy with zero dig but it *might* lack the support needed as your child edges up closer to 30 pounds, if doing a single layer carry.  If in base size this would rock a wrapjob all the way to the end of your wearing days.

Pavo Sea Star Starling

I got a beautiful Pavo Sea Star Starling size 4 in temp trade.  I was excited to try this Pavo form wrap, even if pink isn’t really my color ;-)

At first touch it felt a lot like Pavo Unicornio, which I have tried in the past, as you can see from my main photo! I do find Sea Star to be softer than Uni, and more floppy but it is possible (as always) that Sea Star is just more broken in than the Unicornio I tried.

I would easily consider this to be a squish worthy wrap and it held up well to my 24 pound 15 month old, even in single layer carries.  I find it to be neither dry nor soap and having some, but very little, texture.

I found Sea Star to have good glide while doing second passes, but in some cases, maybe a little bit too much.  I always like to try carries with a half knot instead of a proper double knot to see how it does, slip-wise, and Sea Star held for a little bit, but then started slipping minimally, not enough, but enough that I wouldn’t be comfortable with a half knot.  It did seem to hold a slipknot well enough, which is what matters more to most people than a half knot.  The only other time I had issues with slip was while trying to tighten the second pass of double hammock.  If I wasn’t careful the bottom rail would slip up over his tush and I would have to reposition.  Not a big deal in the grand scheme (and maybe due in part to wiggly toddler) but worth mentioning ;-)

There is a bit of stretch in Sea Star Starling but not very much, it’s there but you have to look for it.  I found it to be relatively thin.  There wasn’t any real cush to speak of but it never felt diggy in any of the carries I tried (ruck TIF, double hammock TAS, kangaroo, and front wrap cross carry TUB).

In all I would consider this a great squish to toddler wrap if glide is your game and you want a soft wrap to wrap and cuddle with! 

Reality of Dinner

The reality is that dinner is never done quite soon enough for baby creature!

All About Me

I am a New England based wrapper (and all around babywearer) that loves to write and try out different wraps.  My husband and I have three kids and three cats, just to keep things interesting! 

Most wraps that I review are here on temp trade though maybe some day I will get a chance to host testers.  I am a serial churner and have seen a LOT of wraps come through here in the 15 months we have been wrapping.

We get at least one “ups” every day here but typically more than that.  My little guy loves to go up in the afternoon after nap time and whenever we go out and about in the world.

For techincal stuff, my base is a size 5.5, being between bases is just, awesome.  I have used wraps anywhere from a size 2 to a size 7, haven’t ventured in to 8 territory yet!  My wrapee is 15 months old (as of December 2015) and around 24 pounds.

That’s a little bit about me! I hope you will follow along (and maybe be patient since we know 3 kids take a lot of time!) as I find time to review the wraps I am using/have used.