Tuesday 25 January 2011

364 Days on the curve By Kate

The eve of Rosie's first birthday is an ideal time to reflect on what I've learned in the last year. It's certainly been a steep curve in many respects - harder than I thought it would be, but easier as well.

So, in no particular order, since becoming a mother I have learned:

-that I am not especially grossed out by my daughter's poo-filled nappies.
-that I can function cheerfully (most of the time) on an average of five hours of broken sleep per night.
-that honey is banned in the first year because it can give babies botulism.
-that olive oil and chamomile tea applied to a baby's rear end can help see off nappy rash.
-that babies often sleep better at night if they've had plenty of sleep during the day and worse if they haven't.
-that the details of my daughter's excreta could be such a source of endless fascination.
-what a "snotsucker"; a "sleep regression"; "cruising"and "a good latch" all mean in parental context.
-that I can talk for hours about the minutiae of our day together, even if we haven't really done anything in particular.
-that I now find conversations about other people's children genuinely interesting.
-how nippy I can be when manoeuvring a pram or buggy.
-that I have hitherto unknown reserves of total silliness when it comes to making faces/noises/doing dances etc.
-that I never knew just how strongly my heart-strings could be twanged by another human being.
-how much I would enjoy it.

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