7 week old demanding baby HELP

[MAMA89]

HI!!!
i have a 7 week baby girl, my first child, i absolutely love her to bits but she wont let me do ANYTHING! i made the mistake of constantly picking her up when she was a newborn and now she refuses to be put down, she wont sleep alone, as soon as i put her down in her cot she starts crying so as a result im co sleeping. im also breastfeeding and im finding that she constantly wants feeding and a lot of mums have told me their kids went without bf for 2 hours or so....mine is always latched on.
ive ordered a sling but really am scared that a sling will make her too dependant on me, i dont want her to get clingy as im a student and return to uni in jan 2011
PLEASE NEED ADVICE!

I just do not get how people still do not understand the importance of b feeding if it is at all possible? Are they living in the dark ages? My MIL keeps asking; is he on the bottle yet?I realise that some people choose not to b feed and there are some excellent formulas out there and many choices more important than whether you b feed, but nutritionally we all know b feeding is the best for a child , if it is possible for the mother to do it...how can people be ignorant of this today?

Goodon you for doing what is best for baby despite the peer pressure. That is an achievement at 21 when you are still developing confidence in yourself. You carry on making a stand for what you feel is best and i am sure you are doing a stellar job.

MAMA89

You do sound like you're doing a great job, a lovely Mum and very in tune with both your baby and what she needs.

It's nothing to do with your age though - i had similar helpful comments when littlemad was born and I was 35!

I did however have my very practical sister on hand to counter every single 'helpful' comment for me and a great book by Penelope Leach which was my bible.

FWIW I was totally child centred regarding feeding on demand - not putting him down and all the things you mentioned, he's now the most adorable happy bright 4 yo in the world (may be slightly biased) but he's so secure ecause he knows Mummy will always come if he needs me.

It does feel like an eternity in those early weeks, but one day it will all 'click' and you will realise wheat a short time it was.

relax, enjoy cuddling and give up trying to do anything else, why do you think it's called a babymoon?

Good luck

She sounds JUST like my DD was.

My DD would not be put down on her own (sometimes I could get away with it if she was out for the count and I put her down very gently, but even if she was comatose she had an uncanny instinct of knowing she was moving into the horizontal plane from the vertical and waking up and screaming!?

She wouldnt go in moses basket till about 12 weeks, and she wouldnt go in her pram at all. At about 9 weeks she didn't mind going in the car seat on the pram wheels for a bit.

So she lived in the sling, and slept on me in bed at night.

It doesn't last - with DD, once she started to see properly, smile, and recognise me, that need to be close all the time disappeared. You can't set patterns at this young age - just keep your DD close the whole time.

In terms of transitioning to moses basket and something resembling a bed time, from about 3 months we started doing bath, feed and then she went in the moses basket with her dummy at our feet in the sitting room for a few weeks. Then when she was a bit older, we tried moses basket in cot upstairs in our room upstairs. Then in cot upstairs, and eventually at 6 months, in cot in her own room.

It'll all happen in due course with your DD too. Soon enough she will be sitting and crawling and you will have to trick her into giving you a cuddle!