My 7 Week old wants holding ALL THE TIME

[Linzi_1982]

Unless my daughter is asleep she cries whenever she is put down and it's making life extremely difficult- especially seeing as though I also have an 18 month old daughter to attend to.  I can honestly say she wasn't constantly held and cuddled when she was 1st born - i'm aware of the term "accidental parenting" and tried to ensure that she could self soothe - but for some reason at about 4 weeks old I ended up having to pick her up more and more often although I try and leave her in her chair, give her a pacifier and do everything I can think of before I eventually give in and pick her up.

I recently read a section in Tracy's book that suggested I pick her up until the moment she is calm and put her straight down ( remember i'm not trying necessarily to get her to sleep at the time - I merely want her to sit on her own during activity time) which I have tried to do, but the more I put her down the more unsettled she becomes to the point that I can't calm her to the point that I am able to put her down (I hope people understand this)

PLEASE does anybody have any suggestions. Life with a toddler is difficult anyway, but with a clingy baby it's a nightmare!  I dread the days sometimes and I find myself begging my fiance not to go to work (which of course I know he has too) My 1st daughter was an angel (until toddler hood) so this really is a shock to the system!!

Help

***Admin edit***
Hi Linzi, just moving this into the activity forum for you, you should get some responses here.

[stasztk]

How old is your daughter?

[LindseysMom]

I know baby wearing is not very BW but have you thought about trying a baby sling.  That way you have your new lo with you and hands free and you can still take care of your older baby.  There are some neat slings out there-over the shoulder baby holder and the Mya Wrap to name a couple.  You can get them online or used on ebay.

[busymom]

Hi Linzi,

Sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time.  Unfortunately, I don't have much advice for you, but I can certainly sympathize.  I have  24 month old and 4 month old girls and we are in exactly the same predicament.  My baby started off fine, and I always swore that I would never be one of those people who held their baby all the time, especially at night.  But at 4 weeks old, I found that she would scream and cry unless she was held, day or night.  I tried everything, but eventually had to resort to holding her...it was the only way that she would calm down.  It eventually escalated, and holding wasn't enough to calm her- I would have to bounce around doing a ridiculous dance and ssshhh in her ear.  She wouldn't sleep anywhere either except on my chest.  It turned out that she was later diagnosed with severe reflux, and that only made it worse because I felt that if she cried I needed to tend to her right away as she was in pain.  My dd is now 4 months old and all I can say is that the snugli has become my best friend.  She still wants to be toted around (and I can't stand it), she doesn't like to sit on her own even if I am there.  I'm trying to slowly cut the ties as this has been going on for some time now.  It sure can be impossible, especially when you have another toddler that wants your attention.

Good luck to you.  If I come up with any ideas that work, I'll keep you posted.

Lori