Neck Strength Is Your Best Friend
Head support's cooler than wearing jorts (I know that rhyme is a reach)
Holding a baby is kind of terrifying, at least for me it was. My wife got attached to him very early on, and I was so afraid that I was going to drop the baby and my wife would be super mad at me for letting him fall to the floor. It’s a high intensity situation, and really, there’s no end in sight, because kids need to get picked up all the damn time. It was only going to get tougher as time went on because he’d be heavier.
But that’s not really the case.
The key to holding a baby safely is not the size of the baby, it’s the strength of the baby’s neck. Holding a tiny baby is terrible, because you need to make sure he doesn’t jostle around and fall off to the side where it looks like his neck is going to snap; that’s bad baby holding. That is why holding an infant is so intense, because you really don’t want to snap your baby’s neck, even though it’ll probably snap back (Note: I’m not a doctor). So, until the baby gets stronger neck muscles, you are running a terrible risk by holding him or her with only one arm as they do just flop off to the side without warning. It’s a very stressful situation.
But then they get neck strength, and it doesn’t matter as much if they fall off to the side. Now, you’ll still have that moment of terror when they start unexpectedly leaning over to the side, but the head stays with the body instead of limping around, so it’s just fun playtime for the little guy.
It also helps that you start to know your baby better. I can predict his movement before he even does it when I feel small shifts in how he is pushing his body against me. It’s not a great superpower, but it at least keeps me dropping my baby like a sack of potatoes, so it’s definitely useful.
Still, the neck strength is what it’s all about. Then the stress subsides and the fun can begin.