Check out the new baby carriers on the market - lots of them available on-line. That's what I use for my babies and I can get everything done - although it's slower than when I'm not carrying a baby. But this way the baby is held against my body nice and snuggly, so he or she just falls asleep and I am able to look after my other kids and run my house. There are front carriers and back ones and side ones and ones that convert into all three positions.

Do you have a baby swing. My newborn won't lie in her bed, but she loves to rock in her wind-up swing. She often falls asleep in the swing and I just leave her there while I at least get a load of laundry done or get dinner made.

My mom always talks about how she learned to do everything with one hand while she used the other hand to hold a baby football style. I thought I'd mention this because I only have one baby and he is like your eldest - he just sleeps in any place I put him down. But I hope to have more children and I know from Mom that a lot can be done with one hand! I have 7 siblings so I guess Mom knows what she's talking about!

I do that one hand trick with my babies. All three of my kids wanted to be held all the time - they never let me put them down. I couldn't be bothered trying to wrap those fancy carriers - I just learned how to do everything with one hand. I'm happy I held my babies because they obviously really needed it and I think it helped them become calmer and more secure. The youngest is now 2 and I'm not planning on having any more kids, so one other thing I want to mention is that the demanding baby stage passes really quickly and they never need you as much after that. Even with 3 kids, being on call 24/7 is just a short phase of life and then they all start getting independent on you. So try to enjoy this period and lower your standards a bit for what you can do in the house.