Quote Originally Posted by Lee-Bee View Post
Baby carrier, all the way. Your baby at a few weeks old will not learn to only want to be held later on. Even carrying the baby all day at 3,4 or 5 months old will not result in a needy helpless child.
I beg to differ. I think exclusively using a baby carrier runs the risk of a clingy child. You can't make an assumption like this for every child. Some are needier and clingy to begin with and this won't help. No one can say that it will not happen with any degree of certainty. It can depend very much on the individual child.

I think it would be helpful to adopt a few different methods. Exclusively in a baby carrier may not result in a clingy baby for some people, for others it will. A general assumption can not be made by anyone but when it's to late it's only you who is going to have to deal with the consequences. I think whenever the dckids are confined to highchairs, boosters etc that you should make sure that this is time for little legs to be able to have total freedom as their will be no issues of dckids accidentally hurting the baby. When your newborn is very little you could have them in a Moses basket on a table outside of the room, depending on your layout obviously, where you can see them and be within a couple of steps away if they need you. The other alternative is the XL play yard as someone else suggested to keep them in the same room but a safe distance from harm. The dckids also need to learn about safety around the little one so I think it's important that for a certain portion of the day that under close supervision the kids should interact closely with little one. Obviously a newborn is different than a couple of months old but it would be an important lesson for the other group to learn. I don't believe one solution exists or one method is ideal. A baby carrier for sure under some circumstances but carrying constantly is not in the best interest of the child or your physical well being either. My kids were in bouncy chairs a lot. I didn't put the electric bounce on as they need to be able to learn to sooth themselves but it meant they were safe and could see me but I had both hands free.

I understand that not everyone has the luxury of taking maternity leave but 2 weeks off after having your newbie isn't even mat leave. Not much of an adjustment period for you or the little one so I'd be looking into the paternity leave for your partner or seeing if family or friends could make a regular weekly visit to help you out. That way you aren't spreading yourself to thin. Extended periods of time with your baby while they watch the dckids and vice versa where you get to do an activity with the dckids which couldn't be done with a newborn in tow.

Good Luck and make sure you and your loved ones take care of you inbetween you taking care of everyone else