I was recently chatting to my yoga teacher about a little adventure I took ThriftyBaby on last month where we visited Blackpool. It is somewhere I’d not been to before but always fancied it and it’s really not that far to get to either so a good friend I’d made at my antenatal class made the suggestion during a rare night out and we just went with it.

Why I was talking to my yoga teacher about this trip was that my friend and I had both decided not to take our prams, firstly for the lack of room in the car to take two prams but also we’d started babywearing a lot more recently and wanted to push ourselves a bit and what we found was just how liberating it was to not be burdened with prams or even one between us which was an option we discussed.

On arrival we were straight out of the car and into a pub for lunch, jumped on and off the tram with ease, wandered down the front in and out of shops and amusements with no fuss and walked up as much of the Blackpool Tower as is allowed. We even took the boys on the big wheel without worrying about our prams getting stolen as we would have had to have left them to the entrance of the ride and there would have been no-where for us to leave them when we went to the circus too. Not taking the pram actually made our little adventure a lot less stressful.

Pam my yoga teacher mentioned she was of a minority when she used to “babywear” with her children and people would take a double glance when seeing her walk down the street wearing a wrap. Since wearing a carrier myself I’ve had some lovely encounters from other mums who have said hello and complemented my carrier. I suddenly felt like I’d joined yet another new club without knowing it!

So Pam recently loaned me a soft wrap to try out and I was intrigued as to how it would work out with ThriftyBaby as he’s now six months and so far I’d associated these soft wrap carriers with little babies, not wriggly boys who get mistaken for one years olds (yeah thanks Waitrose Partner!)

The wrap arrived in a matching drawstring bag with the Yogabellies logo on top, which was cool as my other carriers don’t come with bags and they can be a bit bulky to shove into a changing bag or back pack.

On opening there were some pictoral instructions – nice and easy to understand for those still suffering from a bit of babybrain! It’s honestly not complicated but the key is getting it tight enough around your body.

Once on the wrap felt very secure and I was able to get James inside it easily. He enjoys being held close and is used to a carrier but I think a soft wrap would be a great starter wrap for anyone who is considering trying out babywearing and wants to be hands-free once again.

As you can see in the picture, he’s nice and close and in kissable distance  He looks quite high up in the picture actually but I think he’d just arched his back as I went to take the photo. At least it demonstrates that it still contains his wriggly strength!

Just spotted my FitBit on this photo too and it’s worth mentioning that without noticing, I spent over six hours in the fat burning zone when I was wearing James in blackpool but I honestly didn’t feel any pressure on me or my heart racing so getting a carrier is doing my health and fitness wonders too!

And finally, also inside the Yogabellies wrap is an adorable little matching hat also in 100% organic cotton which makes James look like an elf!! He didn’t look too impressed by this but I think it’s worth buying just for the hat!

The wrap (and matching hat) come in four different colours; purple (shown), pink, grey or blue and are available to purchase from your local Yogabellies instructor or online here for £30.

YogaBellies offer authentic classes, therapies and workshops for women and children at every stage of their lives including pregnancy and birth; for post-partum mum and baby and now also, yoga for children. The pregnancy yoga is a course I completed when expecting James and now I do mum and baby yoga with him and I can not recommend it highly enough. If you want to find out where your nearest class is click here to discover more.