How long would you let a 6 week old cry?

[crayon]

I have a very lovely six week old, but he does tend to cry when awake at the moment and I have a 3 and 5 year old too and a husband who is often away.

At this time of night, I need to do suppers, bath etc and even though I have simplified life as much as possible so I only do the bare necessity, I struggle to get things done. It's no good saying bath them in the morning etc because he cries before school too, so that's not an option.

I tend to pick him up for a bit, plonk him down to cry while I do a quick job and then pick him up again. I have a sling, but I can't do many jobs when he is in that, and am scared of hurting him with boiling water or saucepans!

How long do/would you find acceptable to leave a baby crying? A few mins must seem like an age to him.

Thanks in advance.

Crayon

inmyopinion - people who tell you that you can spoil a young baby by attending to his/her crying are wrong. Babies of this age just have needs and cry to get them satisfied. They are not capable of being manipulative. Their stress responses can also be damaged by their being left to cry for prolonged periods. I have a 13-week old DS and a 3.9 year-old DD. I have faced this problem, too, as DS has colic and is already teething. I have prioritised him when he's cried and DD now accepts that, when he cries, he has to be seen to first, whatever is happening. My rationalisation is that this intense period of crying will end before long and then I can deal with them more evenhandedly. It must be much harder to do this with a younger child, though. Lots of sympathy. I, too, have found slings useful, by the way.

meal times a nightmare at this age - I would get dinner ready at lunchtime and just jiggle baby around between 4-7pm

only had two though so probably a piece of p in comparison

hi crayon, subsequent children can be so different from the first ones can't they? I discovered slings for my ds2, renting from bigmamaslings to try them out, and fell in love with my Kozy Carrier, which was custom made in the States. I carried ds2 in it until he was about 1yo, and frequently did the cooking with him on my back. Prior to that, I had a BabyBjorn, but that did my back in. In contrast I could wear the Kozy for ages.

I did still feel terribly guilty about ds1 losing out on my attention but ds2 had reflux and he was far far better when carried around.

oh and we had a 'bouncy' chair too - not that we bounced him in it, but it helped to keep him at an angle if I really needed to put him down for a while.

As long as you need, but it will always seem longer than it actually is.
I have a 3 month old, plus 3.5 & 2. The oldest two ate a lot of pesto pasta and lived on sandwiches all summer for tea. I depended on lots of 'activities' of a non messy kind to occupy the older two.
I found a sling a godsend, but had the same worries about heat.
I'm sure you're doing fine.