Start as You Mean to Go on

"Start as you mean to go on".  That is a favorite phrase from Tracy Hogg of The Baby Whisperer.  That is, imagine what you want your family to look like, and begin that way when your baby comes home from the hospital. 

So Tracy says is you want to embrace her idea of whole-family parenting, use her E.A.S.Y. method (or insert whatever method you are choosing).  If you choose another approach, that's your perogative.  But parents often don't realize they are making the choice and get into what she calls "accidental parenting".  They don't start as they mean to go on.  Tracy gives a great example of this.  She recommend to parents who carry their infants around in order to get them to sleep that they try doing that for half an hour with a twenty-pound sack of potatoes.  Is that what you what you want in a few months from now? Most likely not:)

So try to make yourself more conscious of habits you might be setting up.

Tracy says that despite the fact that infants come in with their own unique temperament, parents' actions do make a difference.
(From Secrets of the Babywhisper, pages 48-50
 
***On a side note, I do think that in those first newborn months, sometimes you just need to make sure that they do get rest and not in an overtired cycle.  The ultimate goal is a baby who is well-rested and is learning self-soothing skills.  But it may take some time to develop.  So you may need to "assist" and help you baby in those first months and I don't think it is necessarily habitforming.  I was so nervous about creating "sleep props" but I do think if you set the foundation for good sleep fundamentals, it will fall into place and you won't have any habits.  So yes, you may use the swing on occassion, or yes you may take a walk in the stroller when they are newborns so they get a great nap, but you are not doing it continuously and they will learn.  I remember with my first she would nap so well in the carseat (not even in the car, or stroller, just in the carseat) and I'm not sure if it was because of the incline, if she felt more cozy and secure strapped in there or what.  And she also napped well in her bouncy chair (I did not have the vibrator on). But she slept in her crib at night fine.  So I made sure to have 1 nap a day in her crib (and would just resettle or try to resettle if she woke early, usually at the 45 min "intruder" mark) and let her have her other naps in the other places as she slept so well there.  Then as she got older (around 10 weeks), she started to nap not well in those, especially her bouncy chair, and much better in her crib, so we transitioned all to the crib.  By 3 months naps were down really good and she had worked out many issues.  So early on I learned you may need to go what works to get baby to take good naps and as they mature it seems to resolve anyways. (And I did this for daytime sleeping, not night).  It is important that they do not get so overtired that they cannot stay asleep.  So that is why you may need to help them get rested in those first few weeks and months BUT it should not continue endlessly.