How to get baby on back in a Beco

AJ is something like 21(?) pounds, so as you can imagine, carrying him is no piece of cake now. If I anticipate carrying him for more than like 10 minutes, I almost HAVE to get his Beco out. He loves the Beco.  This kid spends 1-2 hours a day in that thing.

Up until now, he's always been worn in the front.  But even front carrying is starting to get a little too much for me now.

I struggled for WEEKS trying to get him in this back carry position.  It's not as easy as it sounds or looks.  It involves a lot shimmying and shifting to get baby in the right spot.

Here's how I do it.

(before mastering this, you'll wanna try doing this over a bed, just in case you let go of the baby accidentally!)

1. Buckle in all the straps to the right sockets except the front closure - you'll wanna do that at the very end.
2. Wear one shoulder strap (I prefer the left to leave my dominant arm free)
3. Hold baby in a hip carry position in right arm
4. Using your left arm, reach through the armhole and pull baby's left leg into it
5. Simultaneously (this is tricky!) wrap your right arm around front of baby so that baby is on your back. You'll probably want to bend forward also, to make sure baby doesn't fall off your back.
6. Find the right strap and wear it
7. shimmy baby in until comfortable

Yes, I realize these instructions are horrible and sounds totally insane.  So here's a video!

And here's us all strapped in.  AJ looks happy so I'm happy.

My only real problem with this carry is not being able to easily stick his binky back in his mouth.  I have to take off one of the straps to free my arm in order to reach his mouth.



10/5/13 addendum:

I'm not as mastered as I think I am, in this back-wearing method.  I almost dropped the baby twice yesterday while shimmying him in!  With my dad, the engineer watching, he proposed a simpler method, for now, until I can figure out this way without almost causing a bad accident.

so here's the new method.

1. Lay the carrier out on the couch (with the arm straps buckled in already)
2. Lay the baby on the carrier, with his legs in the right holes.
3. Kneel by the couch, buckle the waist strap in
4. Wear the carrier like you're putting on a backpack (stay kneeled), make sure baby is in all the way
5. Get up and shimmy the baby around so he's comfortable.

Yeah, embarrassed to admit. This is so much more comfortable, and takes a lot less time. lol.