It all started six years ago when our daughter was born with a search for a healthier and more natural alternative to baby strollers. It just didn’t feel right placing her flat on her back and away from the warmth and security of my body. My husband and I started exploring the option of carrying her in a sling. While the slings we tried held her close and made her happier and more peaceful, they just didn’t feel right on our shoulders and backs. We needed to find something to make both the carried and the carrier happy.
When our son was born, we encountered the wonderful world of baby wraps which distributed his weight across both shoulders and our whole back. They were much more comfortable. A woven wrap seemed too restrictive. The other stretchy baby wraps were great but they were difficult to tie so that they would fit just right as the material seemed to stretch out when we walked for a while. When we took our son out of the stretchy baby wrap the t-shirt material bagged out and we always had to retie it before placing him back inside. The search was on for the perfect material and we found it- more sturdy and durable than the cotton t-shirt material and with a touch of elasticity that bounced back. It conformed perfectly to our son's body, so we could wear him all day and take him in and out of it without needing to retie it, and it was so much easier to nurse in.
(our son Nikolai out cold in the first home-made Sleepy Wrap)
We created the best baby carrier for our children. Soon our neighbor wanted one. And then her friends wanted one. The compliments and positive reviews started pouring in. We figured that every family with a newborn would appreciate one and decided to make our baby wraps available to the public. The name for our baby carrier started popping up by itself when we kept seeing happy parents carrying their peacefully sleeping babies in our baby wraps.
And the "Sleepy Wrap" was born.
Elizabeth Antunovic
Avid Babywearer
MISSION
NAP, Inc.'s mission is to provide comfortable and durable baby carriers to parents throughout the world and to give them a helping hand in raising confident, joyful and compassionate children. We hope to enhance the bond between mother and child by enabling both to be close and connected to each other in a practical yet magical sort of way. It is so easy to place "things" between mother and baby, especially in today's society. A great majority of the baby gear out there although intended to help a mother out actually ends up hindering her by further separating her both physically and emotionally from her child. Often times, rubber, plastic and fuzzy blankets end up substituting and even end up replacing Mother. This is not to say that life shouldn't be made easier for mom. A mom who carries her baby or wears her baby can show her affection without effort. She can respond to her baby's cues because she is right there. Communication happens easier because she is right there. Baby is content because all his needs are being met and he trusts that they will continue to be met. When a baby knows that his attentive mom is present and can hear her heartbeat and her familiar voice he is a calm and happy baby. A mother who holds and carries baby is constantly given the reaffirmation that all that her baby really needs - is her!
When a mother shares her life and space and moves with her baby through her day she will fall in love with her child. She will naturally treat her baby with understanding, compassion and respect from which will blossom a loving relationship based on trust. This "trust" is critical as it is the basis not only for a child's healthy neurological, behavioral, and social development, but sets the stage for which that child will build and form all of his subsequent relationships throughout his life. Babies who have their early needs met by loving parents will know how to create enduring relationships. Having been treated with love and respect, they will grow up to have the freedom to use their time in creative and meaningful ways and continue to transform into their greatest potential.
The warmth and empathy that comes when we as mothers carry our own is truly profound and cannot be underestimated. Children are the pedestal on which the future of our world rests - investing in their well-being is well worth it!
WHO DO WE SUPPORT?
The Sleepy Wrap team is a small group of dedicated people all working together to support babywearing, natural parenting, and other practices of secure bonding and attachment so that every mother can deepen her conscious understanding and appreciation of her relationship with her baby. We recognize that there is no single formula to meet each particular child's individual challenges and respect a mother's innate ability to trust and know what is right for her own.
We support not for profit organizations that support
- Natural childbirth, homebirth/unassisted birth, and midwifery
- Doulas
- Breastfeeding/Ecological Breastfeeding
- Pregnancy Resource Centers
- Attachment/Empathic/Intuitive parenting
- Elimination Communication
- Natural Fertility Awareness/ Natural Family Planning
- Home/Natural/Unschooling and Alternative Education and Auto-Didacts
- Adoption
and other organizations that embrace life in all of its stages and work to protect it.
WE HAVE SUPPORTED:
Above Rubies Ladies' Retreat Texas
APorteedeBisous, Paris, France - aporteedebisous.canalblog.com
Athens County WIC – The Plains, OH
Atlantic County WIC Program - Atlantic City, NJ
Attachment Parenting International - www.attachmentparenting.com
BABE Film Festival
Babywearing Conference Canada
Babywearing Conference Chicago
Bayview Elementary School PTA
Belmont County WIC - Bellaire, OH
Berkshire Nursing Families -sling lending program called "Boom-A-Rang"
Breastfeeding Support Walk 2008 in New York
California Hospital -baby friendly hospital
Caring Pregnancy Crisis Center Boulder, CO
Chicago Area Breastfeeding Coalition Conference
CHOICES Natural Birth & Parenting Network
Clifford Beers Guidance Clinic - www.cliffordbeers.org
Columbiana County WIC Program - Lisbon, OH
Coshocton County WIC – Coshocton, OH
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières - www.doctorswithoutborders.org
DONA -(Doula) International Conference - www.dona.org
Doulas Association of Southern California
Family Foundations (Natural Family Planning Support)
Franklin County WIC Program - Columbus, OH
ICAN of NW Arkansas
Independent Doulas around the world
Inter-tribal Council of Arizona WIC Program - Phoenix AZ
Kazakhstan Orphanages
Lawrence Memorial Hospital
Le monde à ma hauteur, Paris, France
Lee County Health Department WIC Program
Les Porter Comme Un Charme - Nice, France
Little Company of Mary Hospital -WABA Breastfeeding Awareness Week
LLL (La Leche League) USA Emerald Sponsor - www.lllusa.org
LLL Alabama
LLL Arizona
LLL Baby Café California
LLL Connecticut
LLL Florida
LLL Idaho
LLL Illinois
LLL Iowa
LLL Louisiana
LLL New York
LLL of Jefferson, LA
LLL of Rockford AM
LLL Oklahoma
LLL Virginia
Logan County WIC – Bellefontaine, OH
Marion County WIC - Marion, OH
Monroe County WIC Program – Woodsfield, OH
MYCAP WIC – Youngstown, OH
Nevada County WIC
NICU (newborn intensive care unit) in Brest, France
No Mother Left Behind Oregon
Oregon State WIC Program – Portland, OR
Parenting Place Boulder, CO - www.boulderparenting.org
Protection Maternelle et Infantile, Institut de Puericulture et de Perinatalogie - Paris, France
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Tazewell County WIC Program - Tremont, IL
The Community and Children's Resource Board of St. Charles County-"Shower of Love"
The Natural Child Project - www.naturalchild.org
Trust Birth Conference California
Unassisted Childbirth Website
WAHM's-mostly through Mom's Blogs
WIC - Ashtabula, OH
WIC - Aurora, IL
WIC – Austin, TX
WIC - Belleville, IL
WIC - Bloomington, IL
WIC - Cape May Court House, NJ
WIC - Centralia, IL
WIC - Chester, IL
WIC - Chicago, IL
WIC – Clinton, AR
WIC – Dayton, OH
WIC - DeKalb, IL
WIC - Detroit, MI
WIC – Dover, DE
WIC - Eldorado, IL
WIC - Eureka, IL
WIC - Frankfort, KY
WIC - Freeport, IL
WIC - Galena, IL
WIC - Greenup, KY
WIC - Greenville, IL
WIC – Harrison, AR
WIC – Jacksonville, AR
WIC - Joliet, IL
WIC - Kewanee, IL
WIC – Lafayette, IN
WIC - Lincoln, IL
WIC – Little Rock, AR
WIC - London, KY
WIC - Malta, IL
WIC – Medina, OH
WIC - Paris, IL
WIC - Princeton, IL
WIC - Quincy, IL
WIC - Salem, IL
WIC – Sandusky, OH
WIC - Scottsville, KY
WIC - Stanton, KY
WIC - Turnersville, NJ
WIC – Walnut Ridge, AR
WIC - Xenia, OH
WIC (Women Infant Children) California
WIC Learning Center – Farmingham, MA
Williams County WIC – Montpelier, OH
Women of Power International Ministries Arizona - Community Baby Shower
Women's Wisdom babywearing classes
"The wraps arrived last Wednesday and I have already given out three. One to a mother whose baby, born three months premature, will be coming home this week. She is excited about being able to use the Sleepy Wrap to do skin-to-skin with her still tiny baby. One to a mother who will be attending college classes and hopes the Sleepy Wrap will enable her to keep her new born baby close even while she is in class. And one to a mother who will be returning to work soon and is glad to have a way to keep her baby close while she is at home, even as she does household chores.
Thank you for your gracious donation to WIC and specifically to my WIC program!"
-Heidi DiBacco, Breastfeeding Coordinator, MYCAP WIC Ohio
