It’s not the sleep deprivation, and I’m not drowning in nappies/rubbish/admin/chores, I just never realised how mentally, emotionally and physically draining it is to look after a tiny baby 24/7. Anne Enright’s book ‘Making Babies’ (which only now makes sense to me) puts it very well, describing small babies as ‘constant need’. I know I’m very lucky that William is so good, God knows what it must be like to have a child who is constantly crying – I think I would have had a nervous breakdown by now.
Yesterday we had a wonderful time, we got the house sorted, said hello to Jim who’s back from South Africa, fed the Alpacas (they didn’t take to apples at all) and the ponies and went on a walk through Heath End and East Woodhay. William is so alert now, he looks intently at our faces and he can hear you as you call to him up the stairs (usually begging him to stop screaming). He loves looking at his Babyshapes book and is now much calmer in the evenings in the sense that he’ll sit with us just watching, rather than being either asleep or crying.
I can’t believe he’s going to be a month old on Sunday, in one sense time has flown and in another this has been the longest 4 weeks of my life.
William's First Year 