Apparently I cried every time my parents put me down. For the first two years. They used to put me in the car seat and go for a drive to get me to fall asleep, then stealthily carry sleeping Wee!Me back and stealthily lay me on the bed and stealthily tiptoe out of the room. At which point I would wake up and wail like a bereft thing.

God, my poor parents.

I'm mostly worried, because my SIL is supposed to go back to work full time in January, but she works out of her home and won't have help with the baby...if she's not able to get anything done now, I don't see that much is going to change in two weeks.

It was *really* next to impossible to work from home with Lillian as a baby. She also didn't like to be out of arms, and it was hard to type around her.

A New Native carrier (which is a ringless sling) might work for them.

A New Native carrier (which is a ringless sling) might work for them.

Cool. I'll take a look at those. They've been pointed away from anything like Bjorn and whatnot until the little guy's six months old.

This site [link] has a simple design of a wrap that can be used to hold babies of all ages, in a number of handy configurations. You might be able to make one for them, vw. Well, I know you could do it, what is not certain is whether it would help them at all.

Cool. I'll take a look at those. They've been pointed away from anything like Bjorn and whatnot until the little guy's six months old.

That's just weird. Why have they been pointed away from the Bjorn? I know some sling sellers claim that it's not ideal, but I haven't seen any real data that backs those claims up (though the Ergo = WAY more comfortable for me). Jess and Fone Bone use one for Little D, and he seems pretty happy in it. Lillian started in the Bjorn at about 3-4 months.

Yeah, they do look pretty easy to make.

At what age did you start letting your babies cry a bit without picking them up right away?

Apparently 35 or something. I always picked them up right away. It was easier on all of us that way. They stopped the crying thing on their own.

And I'm totally clueless about these things, so I just keep my mouth shut, which then seems to frustrate my brother, because he seems to think I'm judging them or something, which I'm not. I just don't know what to say. So, I want to be supportive in a knowledgeable way, I guess.

Honestly, as a former nanny who has seen a number of new parents with kids, I don't think there is much you can do since it seems that they have both already made the choice that they prefer holding to crying. In my experience, there is usually one parent who forces the issue but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Why have they been pointed away from the Bjorn?

They were told in their breastfeeding class that the Bjorn, and those like the Bjorn, cause hip displacement or something, because they're not really designed for infants. Or something like that.

I have to jump into the baby carrying discussion!

I used the Bjorn and a Maya wrap sling with Ellie (Bjorn from about 2 weeks and the Maya wrap from about 3 months). I *love* the sling because I could do almost anything, include nurse, hands free, or maybe with one hand just because I liked to feel her.

For this baby I bought a Peanut Shell (a pouch not a sling) and two other ring slings. Ring slings are very adjustable and can be used in a zillion different ways (I used mine with Ellie until she was about 2 and we only quit because it's so hot here). I got the pouch because it looks like it might be quicker to put the baby into and maybe cooler.

(I should add that, as a toddler, I let her fuss if she's just being fussy. If she's actually upset, she gets picked up and comforted. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between whinging and sorrow.)

This is me too. I pretty much always pick her up if she's upset, unless it's a temper tantrum thing, but that doesn't happen with babies.