We had successfully Taken you home. Mission accomplished. It was now that the real tests would begin. We were after all, first time parents. Over the course of the pregnancy and even through the last few stages of childbirth, both your Mummy and myself had been reading up on everything baby related… hungrily I must add. Books, articles, magazines. Anything we could get our hands on. We were determined to be baby experts by the time you were born. How wrong we were.. oh, how very wrong. Nothing can fully prepare you for a new child… nothing. Yes, I do have to admit that accumulating knowledge did prove to be of help but it fell short from having real and valuable experience. We did come to a conclude an important fact. One I will put emphasis on at the end of this post.

Your first week of life was the hardest on us both, more so on your mummy than for myself. She was breastfeeding you at the time and it was tough. Removed from the hospital, we had no way of being certain that we were doing it correctly. We had no indication of how much you were drinking at each session. Your mummy’s frustration was beginning to surface. between feeding and pumping milk, she would only be allowed brief periods of rest. Slowly but surely, it began taking it’s toll. On the second day, your mummy had taken ill. She experienced waves of nausea and could hardly keep anything down. I had no choice but to leave you with Nina, and take your poor mummy down for a visit to the GP. Thankfully, it was only the effects of the anaesthesia. A common side effect. Still, we had to take you off breast feeding briefly as your mummy was given medication. Luckily we had the fore-sight to store breast milk in advance. Crisis averted.

They say the it’s darkest just before dawn. How true it was for us. When the sun set and darkness fell, the trials would begin. Through the day, you would Sleep peacefully… but as evening drew near, you would awaken from your slumber. The restful state you had been in, would shift. It’s common for babies to have alternate sleep patterns. A lot of parents both new and experienced go though this. Day is night and night is day. We would jokingly greet her with a cheerful good morning the moment she stirred in the evening. It was certainly true for you, I could almost hear the cockerels crowing. For the life of us, we could not get you to sleep. As soon as the sun went down the party would start. Both your mummy and myself would wait on you hand and foot. Changing your diapers, feeding you, carrying you and singing to you. We even gave white noise a try. All in an attempt to calm you and try to get you comfortable enough to sleep. Even when we managed this feat, it wouldn’t last long. We still had to wake you every 2 hours in order to feed you. Then the cycle would begin a new. Come dawn, the peace would once again  take over. Still we toiled through it, night after night. Day after day. We took each day as it came. It was the only thing we could do the time. Drawing strength from each and every success. We were learning the hard way, so it seemed. I know it’s silly but at the time we worried that her sleep pattern might not correct itself. What would happen when we both resumed work? How would we cope then? If you are find yourself in a similar situation, take heart, it will not last. Eventually some normality will set in and night will bring them slumber. Patience above all is necessary. One important thing to note, something we found most truthful… is that no two babies are alike. We went on forums and queried youtube on how to get a baby to sleep at night. We tried many of them and none worked for us. Reading the experiences of other parents, we discovered that important fact… Every child is different. what works with one will not necessarily work on another. Again I remind you, have patience and do not worry yourself silly, the child will sort it out on his or her own.