We know you all love your Beco, you never leave the house without it! Sometimes bad things happen to even the best loved carriers, and it can be devastating. There have been many reports recently of Beco waist belts breaking, so we did a little investigation.

Moms have been reporting that the prongs on their waist buckles are breaking when they are snapping it into place. Have no fear! Your beloved carrier can and will be fixed! There was a bad batch of waist belts that were used on the Beco Butterfly II carriers manufactured in 2009. Exactly which carriers have the defective buckles and which don’t is hard to determine, but fortunately with the safety seat in the Beco Butterfly II, there should be no danger if your waist buckle happens to be one that breaks!

If you are unfortunate enough to have a broken waist buckle, this is completely covered under your Beco warranty and will be replaced for you at no cost. Simply send an email to Beco Customer Service explaining that your buckle has broken. Be sure to include your name and address, and they will get a new buckle out to you ASAP.

When your buckle arrives in the mail, simply unthread the broken buckle from your waist strap and re-thread with the new buckle. Replace both halves of the buckle, as not all buckles are the same, and you want to make sure that you have matching pieces!

Before ya know it, you will be back on the trail with your baby in your favorite carrier!

As a vendor, and a very special person, hahaa, I tried on a prototype of the new carrier from Beco last September at the ABC Kids Show. I have been waiting patiently, OK, not so patiently, for more information! We now know that it will be called Gemini and is due to be released this spring!

The Gemini is a smaller bodied carrier than Beco’s previous models, and designed to carry babies on your front, back, hip, or, gasp!, front facing out! The facing out position is somewhat controversial, but some mamas swear that their babies will not tolerate facing towards them. So, a great rule of thumb for younger babies to avoid over-stimulation is to limit facing out time to 15-20 minutes and if you see baby’s head turning to the side, that usually means that they are trying to block out some of the action and should be turned back around to face mommy.

Although the Gemini can be used with young babies, I comfortably wore my then-10 month old on my front and back in this prototype Gemini!  In the tradition of the Beco 4th Generation, the shoulder straps could be unbuckled under the arms and re-fastened as crossed straps across your back.  The headrest can be folded down, and the edges of the body of the carrier can be folded inwards and fastened, making the body narrower and more comfortable for smaller babies. (All of these details were true for the version of the Gemini I tried in September 2009. We will, of course, give you the full scoop on the Gemini as soon as more information is released!)

Only time will tell if mainstream moms will adopt this new chic baby carrier for their front facing babies, or whether the blase Bjorn ( that’s bla-zay, ladies!) will continue to be the generic go to carrier.

The part I’m most excited about??? The luscious purple straps that may be available on the first round of Beco Geminis!  Stay tuned for more information, a pre-order special, and more Beco news!

Beco fan Felicia  wants to know: How do you know that you’ve become a hard core baby wearing mama??? She says she knows that she is a Beco fan because “I wear tube tops alot and noticed I have huge tanlines on my shoulders from the straps.”

Jen laughs that, “I tend to bounce even when DD isn’t attached to me - my DH has to remind me to stand still.”

Cindy admits “…when you pick which carrier to use that day based on what will match your outfit.”

“When the only reason you use the stroller is to carry the crockpot down the block with you, LO strapped to your back!” says Crystal.

I definitely agree with this Midwest Mama: “When you can’t see the floorboard of the backseat of your car because it’s covered in carriers, wraps, and slings.”

Mayghan has 2 great clues to prove that you are hooked! “You haven’t used a stroller in months” and “You look at your husband like he has 3 heads when he says ‘Just put him in the grocery cart’.”

Julianne cracked me up with her comment, ” …when you’d rather buy a carrier than pay your bills… (oops!!! that only happened once, I swear!)”

Kassi has a dead give away, “When your husband asks “why do you need ANOTHER carrier! We only have 1 kid!”"

Idaho mommy to 1 says “You grin and wave at other Baby Wearers at the farmers market in a secret society kind of way. Like when two guys on motorcycles pass each other. Or even more… your baby gives a secret society gummy grin to other worn babies!”

My own realization came when “You know you’re a true babywearer when you go to visit a friend in the hospital with her new baby, volunteer to wrap the baby to give mom a few minutes of peace, and seriously contemplate wearing the baby right out the door!!!”

Thanks to all our babywearing mamas for their help in creating this list!

It’s laundry day at the House of Beco!  Our Blue Scooter Beco got rudely stepped on after our adventure at the park the other day, and ash from our most recent wildfires got ground into the twill, sob!  So, into the washing machine it went!  I did not pre-treat the fabric for fear that the twill would fade differently, but I did use Charlie’s Soap, my favorite detergent!, and a full cold water cycle on gentle with an extra pre-rinse with vinegar to set the color!   Don’t forget to clip the buckles together too! It came out looking great, squeeky clean, and went to enjoy a line dry outside in the shade.