I have been keeping a daily diary since we came home from hospital. In it I record when Stella is awake or asleep, which side breast she has fed from and for how long, when she went down in her cot and how easy or difficult it was to settle her. I remember this as a useful tool from when Amy was born and I was a fumbling, frightened first-time Mum who had no idea when the baby should be awake or asleep, eating or burping. Its no less useful this time around as I try and keep track of a busy toddler and a new baby and its helped me make sense of our days and nights. Now that Stella is a whole 21 days old I am starting to see some slight patterns emerge in her day-to-day routine. I hesitate to use the word routine because thats something you can’t associate with a baby who’s life is measured in days rather than weeks or months, unless you are Gina F0rd or someone with serious control issues!
Ironically I have found it very hard to relinquish control of my life over to a tiny baby and I suppose I should have spent more time anticipating how difficult this would be rather than stuffing my face with easter eggs whilst awaiting Stella’s arrival! In my defence its very difficult to anticipate something about which you know nothing and in reality I tried very hard NOT to think about the actual baby too much because I know babies are all very different and you can’t plan for the kind of baby you are going to get. I had no idea whether our new baby would be similar to Amy or the complete opposite. I didn’t know if we were going to get a baby who suffered from colic or reflux or mixed up its days and nights. I kind of knew that we were going to have a big baby but I hoped that this would mean what it did with Amy, that she was easier to feed, quicker to sleep for longer periods and definitely easier to handle!
According to my daily diary, these are some of the things that Stella has accomplished in her short life, these may not be of much interest to anyone except me!
Day 12 – Stella went to playgroup for the first time and behaved like a little angel. She also slept for four hours again between 8pm and 12am