Double Hammock Series: Tied Under Bum

Once you get the basics of a double hammock down, you can begin to delve into the world of all it’s wonderful variations. A great place to your variation journey is by tying off a basic Double Hammock at a different contact point.

What is a contact point? Put simply, it is a place during the wrapping process where you could naturally tie off the tails. The most common place is in front at your waist, like in a basic Double Hammock. However, if your wrap is longer or shorter than your base size, this might not be the best option—or even possible.

In this post, will explore the contact point of Tied Under Bum. It’s pretty much exactly what the name sounds. You tie your tails behind your back, under baby’s bottom. You usually do with with a wrap shorter than base size because you do not have enough length to bring the tails back to your front. You can bring longer tails back around to under the bum to tie off, but that is less common.

This carry starts just like a basic double hammock. Start with the wrap off center, get baby up. Then make a seat. Bring the longer tail under your arm and across your chest, then bring it under your arm and over baby’s leg on the opposite side. Do a traditional sling pass across baby’s back, bringing the tail over your shoulder. Lastly bring both tails over baby’s legs in a bunched passes.

This is where is it deviates. Instead of bringing both tails under the opposite legs, simply cross them. It’s important that you still try to pin down the seat with each bunched pass.

Now tie a double knot right under baby’s bottom. I usually lean forward a bit for the first half the knot, then stand up straight and jump/bounce baby gently as a do the second half. This gets baby’s weight off the contact point so you can get a secure, firm knot with minimal slack.

That’s pretty much it! Nothing too fancy. A sling pass, a torso pass, another sling pass, and a double knot under baby.

The advantage of this carry is you get the support, but no bulky knot in the front. This a great option to show off the pattern your wrap in the torso pass without the knot obstructing the view. Also as previously mentioned, it’s a way to use a shorter than base wrap.

There are some drawbacks to tying under bum. First of all, if you have limited range of motion with your hands or arms, it might be difficult to tie behind you at this angle. Also, the knot is usually directly at the small of your back. It could become uncomfortable longterm. And make it difficult to sit. If you have seat popper, it may be easier for them to loosen the knot and kick out the seat.

Tied Under Bum is very worthwhile variation to try. It’s a quicker version of a great basic carry. Work on pinning that seat in place with the knot/bunched passes and you will be golden! This contact point is also used in other variations, so it’s a good idea to learn this skill for later.

For more advice on pinning the seat down with bunched passes, check out my Ruck tutorial.