"Are you putting her down yet?", the Health Visitor asked. Her manner was stern, and slightly concerned, as if she might be simultaneously wondering who she might mention me to on the community mental health team. With my baby just a couple of weeks old and sleeping on my shoulder like a dollop of marshmallow, I stammered, "Er...no!...Er...Should I be?!". "Yes", she replied, unequivocally. "You need to start putting her down more. If you hold her all the time you will create a bad habit." Oh. I felt confused. I didn't have any kind of parenting plan, I wasn't following the advice of any book, it just hadn't occured to me to stop holding this tiny soul. I liked having her in my arms. She seemed delicious to me in every way that it is possible to be delicious. She felt at ease, draped across the body she had only recently vacated. And besides, I didn't really have anything else to do, but hold he...