Baby Diary page 8 - A day in the life of a baby.

• 7-8am Breakfast. Zachary wakes for his morning feed. Usually about 6-7oz of milk. It takes about 1-2hours and involves a morning nappy change and choosing an outfit for the day. After breakfast Zachary gets to watch mummy get ready for the day. If I am lucky I get to take a shower at this point otherwise quick wash and dress then back to mummy's job as entertainer. He also has an 11am nidmorning snack and another sleep.

• 9-12 am. Entertainer. Keeping a 3 month old baby with the attention span of about 1 min total maximum entertained is no small order. You can try all you like to get other things done like get dressed yourself, prepare and eat some breakfast etc but when baby wants attention they simply don't know how to wait. You go through every toy in the toy box and finish up with the musical teddy because that is his favourite. It plays a nice gentle tune and he simply loves it. I also read to him.

• Lunch Time. Sometime between 11am and 1pm is lunch time. A nice bottle of milk although we have just started weaning so yesterday we had a teaspoon of organix banana cereal mixed with a bit of milk then a bottle. Weaning is fun as most of what Zachary eats comes straight back out but he seems to be enjoying himself and had started to display all the classic signs of a baby ready to start to wean. Watching me eat, not being able to drink enough milk to feel full, chewing anything and everything he can grab, drooling like a mad dog. Organix actually have a really nice site with some leaflets - Organix. If I am lucky I get to eat too although often its a pile of fruit or something simple as Zachary is screaming for his lunch. He often sleeps after lunch.

• Afternoon. Time for more entertainment and possibly a nap if we are lucky. Most days my sister in law comes over with her baby and we take the babies for a walk. Its nice to get out into the fresh air and Zachary has just reached the stage where instead of crying then screaming the whole time he will actually settle down in the buggy and go to sleep. When we get back he has normally woken up and started to cry or scream so I usually quickly whisk him away to give him a nappy change and try some distraction techniques.
• Afternoon Naps. By mid may he has settled into a nice routine of a nap from about 2pm to 5pm. It makes life easier in the evening as he tends to be in a much better mood when he has rested and sleeps better at night. (added on 14th May)

• Late afternoon distraction entertainment. Once again its back to trying any toy that he will look at, reading some books, singing a play song or a nursery rhyme. To be honest its much easier to entertain my niece who at 9 months old can actually sit and play with toys etc. Zachary doesn't really understand what he is looking at, grows bored very easily and would just as happily stare at a lampshade turned on or a plant. His favourite book is a ladybird board book about colours that has things to touch inside. He especially loves the green bumpy frog. It is also food time when he wakes up!

• Tea Time around 5 to 7pm. Ok now I have to attempt to try and have some dinner myself while trying to give Zachary his dinner too. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Its at this time I am glad that Mum is around as she often sits him on her lap or finished his feed while I bolt my dinner down. I am surprised I don't get indigestion these days as I eat at ultra fast pace. I am learning that with a small baby you do everything 3 times faster than you used to. Zachary has started having baby rice with his late feed in an effort to really fill his tummy and get him to sleep through. Since I started this he has slept for between 6 - 8 hrs which is the longest he has ever slept. Its amazing !

• Evening Time. This can stretch from 6pm to midnight and involves lots of nappy changing, distraction entertainment, feeding, napping and loving. Often Zachary gets tearful and fretful when he is tired. Because he is still a little bit sick when he feeds that annoys him too and sometimes it scares him. He definitely doesn't like it but hey who likes being sick. Once he starts to go to sleep I put him into his sleeping bag and try to put him down to sleep.

• Bed Time. Once we get close to bed time we often have about 30 mins of really fighting going to sleep with tears and tantrums. I end up pacing up and down trying to lull him into sleep. It usually works and is definately getting quicker. In the early days I would often end up pacing the house for hours trying to get him to sleep. My back would be killing me by the time he went to lseep and even then I would often end up sitting in a chair with him. Now he tends to go straight down which is great. Because he has started to move about he has progressed into his sleepbags. Its a baby sleeping bag which fits around their body. It means they can't kick off any covers, get wrapped up in them or twisted around. Much safer and easier. He loves his stripy sleep bag from Bumpto3.

• Night time. Midnight to 7am. Because Zachary tends to be very windy and sick he often wakes himself up bringing up sick or wind. Sometimes he really scares himself especially if it sticks in his throat and nose preventing him from breathing. He feels he can't catch his breath and starts to really scream and get very upset. For this reason I have kept him in the same room as me so that I can hear him and get to him quickly if he starts to choke. I have to pick him up, clean up the sick, cuddle him and reassure him then try to get him to go back to sleep. This can happen anything from once to three or four times a night. On a good night he will sleep through with little fuss which is great for me. I really need my beauty sleep. I can be pretty grumpy on no sleep and bless him he wakes up all smiles which just makes me smile too even though I am absolutely shattered. It isn't unusual for me to catch some zzz's during the day if he has a nap. I snatch sleep where and when I can.
• Sleeping through the night. (Added May 14th) Zachary has settled into a routine of having an afternoon nap now. This plus starting weaning has meant that generally he sleeps better at night. Last night he woke me at 4am and was unsettled then horribly sick at lunch time but generally he is starting to lseep much better. At last !

Hard work but rewarding.

It is hard work being a full time mum and I take my hat off to all my friends because I really had no idea that babies really took up so much of your time. Its relentless too. They have no patience, don't know how to wait, don't care that you haven't slept, eaten, dressed, brushed your teeth etc. They have short attention spans and will not be fobbed off. You can't spoil a baby with love but you can damage a young person by not loving them. Really as an attentive mum you respond to pretty much their every whim especially at this early stage. I want Zachary to grow up knowing I will always be there for him and right now I know he needs that. I am the heartbeat he grew next to. I am the voice he listened to while his ears and senses developed. I am the person who sat next to his incubator and calmed him when his tube hurt or he couldn't sleep. I am the body that he instinctively knows the smell of. I am the person who feeds, cleans and entertains him. I am the person who's face always lights up his world and makes him smile and that is what makes it all worth while.

I know that tomorrow if I had to leave him he would miss me for a while but eventually he would never remember me but I know that he will never have to miss me. I will always be there for him. When he wakes in the night. When he falls off his bike. When he needs help with his homework. When his first girlfriend dumps him. When his first paycheck comes in and he wants to celebrate. When he grows up into a handsome happy confident man I want him to know that of all the people in his world I was always there for him. I hope that knowledge helps him feel secure and confident in this turbulent world. That knowledge gives him the strength to be an amazing person. I have always felt that the love my family have for me has always been my safety net enabling me to travel to the corners of the world and know I am still loved. I will always be his safety net. I love him as only a mother can love her child.