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I don't think you have to offer up your baby to every visitor. I wasn't that interested in holding babies before I became a mom, and now that I've had one of my own I'm sure from the baby's perspective it's frightening to be passed around. I found people will ask if they can hold LO if they really want to.

I would not ask to hold a newborn-- I'd be afraid the mom didn't really want me to if they didn't ask. But I always wash my hands immediately when I walk in to visit a mom and newborn, and I think that indicates to them that I want to hold the baby if they are comfortable with it. I think it was usually pretty obvious that I was dying to hold the baby though.

I've never asked and would only hold NB if mom offered. I think I would offer only a few select people, and not sure how I'd feel when the time comes if they just asked. I'd probably just let them hold her if they asked (after they washed their hands and doused themselves in antibacterial sanitizer, of course!)

I always asked if people wanted to hold lo.... our friends had no problem saying no to us if they didn't want to.

And I will usually ask to hold a baby if I'm close with the parent. Especially now, I think back to when lo was a newborn and if they held her I want to hold their baby too so I ask. They can always make up an excuse like its time to eat if they don't want me to.

Awhile I ago I visited some friends specifically to see their baby. I immediately came in, washed my hands, held the baby and took a pic. Later when the mom was holding the baby she asked if I wanted to hold him again. I said no and then she called for her husband. OMG she needed a break! I held the baby again.

When I have a LO, I will wait for people to ask and I will also keep a bouncy close by

I never ask to hold a newborn, but I definitely want to When LO was a newborn, I always offered to let our visitors hold her, but we only had close friends and family visit while she was tiny.

I offer to everyone since I always want to hold babies but don't want the parents to feel uncomfortable. So I would always wait until they offered and then happily hold the baby. Anyone who didn't want to hold my LO has simply just said so, and we moved on. No biggie

I think it's far more awkward to ask to hold a baby that a mom doesn't want others holding than to offer up your baby to be held and have someone say, "no thank you." I never mind when people don't want to hold my LO, but I do find it odd when we go to visit a new baby and the mom doesn't offer to let me hold the babe. It makes me afraid to ask, because I feel it puts the mom in an awkward position of having to say, "No, I would prefer that no one hold my baby." I mean, it probably wouldn't happen, but just to avoid that sitch I think the mom should always ask, "So, who wants to hold the baby?"

I only hold my best friends LOs and they usually offer. We didn't let anyone hold our LO right away, he was in NICU for 10 days and we didn't want him to potentially "catch anything" until he was a little older. Once he turned 3 months, I let anyone hold him.