Are you already a fan of Beco Baby Carriers?  Have you already worn a Beco and loved it?  Do you already own a Beco and wonder how you got anything done before you had one?  Are you a new babywearer ready to fall in love with Beco’s newest baby carrier?  Beco’s new Gemini has us all in suspense as we wait for the release of the newest Beco carrier!  The launch date has been moved several times, but we are confident that the schedule changes are for the best, ensuring that we will be carrying our babies in the safest, most comfortable carrier available!  There are so many hoops for baby carrier manufacturers to jump through these days, and we are thankful to Beco for diligently going through the steps to provide a fabulous new baby carrier for us babywearers to enjoy!

The Beco Gemini is a throw back to the super popular Beco 4th Generation which was retired back in 2008.  The 4G has become hard to find these days so if you come across one, snap it up!  It was the first Soft Structured Carrier to showcase designer fabrics and take babywearing to a stylish level!  Now, Beco has redesigned their classic design of the 4th Generation and renamed it as the Gemini!  The differences between the 4th Generation and the Gemini are slight but important!  There is no longer a hood on the Gemini not the storage pocket of the 4G.  The Gemini has a headrest and  a convertible front panel, both which are customizable for your baby with a set of snaps.  Both carriers can cross their shoulder straps across the back for that PERFECT fit, and the Gemini can also convert to being a hip carrier or a front facing out carrier!   As usual, Beco promotes style and comfort without sacrificing any structural integrity of the baby carrier itself!

Taking babywearing to new levels of comfort is Beco’s claim to fame, with each of their carriers being more comfortable than the last!  Their previous new carrier was the Beco Butterfly II which introduced a whole new way of back carrying to the babywearing world!  Using an integrated insert, parents can now swing their babies up onto their backs by themselves without having to use any tricky techniques like the hip scoot or the Santa Toss!  The Butterfly features that Y panel that I find to be so comfortable and useful for nursing easily and discretely and for soaking up some of the baby sweat created by summertime babywearing!  A detachable hood and optional infant insert complete the Deluxe package of the Beco Butterfly II!

Can’t decide which Beco carrier is the right one for you and your baby?  You might choose based on these factors!

Worried about back carrying independently?  Beco Butterfly II

Want to face baby out or carry on your hip?  Beco Gemini

Looking for a basic carrier with a hood & a great sense of style?  Beco 4th Generation

Have a large baby or plan on wearing a larger child?  Beco Butterfly II - weight maximum is 45 pounds

Have a petite baby or plan on not using the carrier through toddlerhood?  Beco Gemini - weight maximum is 35 pounds

Want to cross the shoulder straps for extra support and comfort? Beco Gemini or 4th Generation

Want to babywear in comfort and love?  Any Beco Baby carrier will do the job!

*happy babywearing from PAXbaby*

Green

Greener

Greenest

Nothing is better for your eco baby than babywearing in an organic Beco Butterfly II!

*happy babywearing*

Thank you to Meg Fish for her gorgeous photography!

You know me…  Beco afficienado!!  A1 fan!!!!  Obsessed mommy!  Hobbyist with a capital H!  Babywearing advocate!  All of the above apply to me, and when Beco unveils their newest Butterfly II prints, I start drooling!!!!  4 brand new to you and me prints plus Paige which we all know and love!  Tyler, Aiden, Lucas, and their girlfriends, Lauren, and my personal favorite, Natalie!!!!!  Can’t wait to see which one you decide HAS to come home to live with you!!!!

Today a new shipment of Beco Butterfly 2 carriers arrived at PAXbaby/Sprout Soup HQ in Columbus, Ohio. This shipment includes the last of the Avery Beco Butterfly, which is being retired (Goodbye old friend!) and the two brand-new, designed by Beco screenprints, Paige and Zoye.

As we looked over our order, we noticed a few design differences in these new carriers. Always on the cutting edge, we are here to share these updates with you!

If you are a Beco aficionado, as the Beco Mamas are, you will know that small design changes from batch to batch are pretty common with Beco Baby Carriers. The design details talked about in this post apply to carriers manufactured in November and December of 2009, which is the newest batch of Butterfly 2 carriers currently available. You can tell when your Beco Butterfly was manufactured by checking the bottom of the box. There are a series of numbers printed on the bottom of every Beco box, 1-12 for the months, and newer boxes include 2009 and 2010 (older boxes only had 2009). The month and year your Beco was manufactured will be marked on these numbers.

The first thing we noticed when looking over the brand new Zoye is the Beco label has been moved. Original Beco Butterfly carriers had the label sewn to the fashion fabric, top and center on the panel. Later the label was changed to a tag that was tacked in to the top right of the carrier, under the snaps for the Beco hood. Well we’ve come full-circle and the tags are once again sewn into the fashion fabric, top and center on the panel beneath the snaps for the hood. All of the labels in the shipment we received have the label sewn on this way, so we assume that is would be true for all Beco Butterfly carriers manufactured in November or December of 2009.

The moving of the label is a pretty obvious design change. Something that will help to identify the age of your Beco carrier.

A less noticeable change on these new Butterfly 2’s is the waist belt. The original Butterfly carriers, up until this point, have had waist belt webbing that attached to the structured base on the center of a half-circle curve. See our Scooter Beco demo (the orange straps) in the pictures below. These new Beco Butterfly carriers have an asymmetrical shape to the waistband edges. They have a sort of inverted curve that ends in a smaller, padded part where the webbing is then attached. It seems like a smoother transition from the original Butterfly carriers.

It also fits nicely over hips and bottom. I have heard some complaints from moms who don’t like how the padded waist fits when they are wearing their little one in a front carry because of the way the padding will rub on their derriere, this new design seems like it would fix that issue.

Are you a Beco-wearing mama who would like to send us your thoughts on the new waist belt design vs the old? Please contact us, we’d love to have you as a guest blogger or just be able to share your comments with our readers. Enjoy your Beco and make sure to check in with myBecoBaby for all the latest Beco news!