The story so far

Eliza is now 11 weeks old (and a day), so it seems a good time to take a moment to reflect on the past couple of months and how well - or not - I have adapted to the role of dad.

The short answer is that things, I think, are going pretty well. But what am I basing that on? Things seem fine - in that I don't feel monumentally tired constantly, or completely out of my depth, or like I want to 'pop down to B&Q' one day and never return - but perhaps I'm just setting the bar extremely low? How's a man to know?

The answer is that although you can't know for sure, you can get a fairly a good gauge from listening to the experiences of others. It's an imperfect method because people's tolerances for things - such as poo and crying - differ. So you need to be alert to the drama queens and the people who always think they have it harder than everyone else. You know the sort.

You also need to be alert to the fact that tales of woe tend to be more amusing to tell than stories about how the little one had a nice time in her bouncy chair before going down for two-hour nap and only cried a smidge.

Having a nice time in the bouncy chair

This isn't true for everyone - some people feel the need, clearly, to constantly tell everyone how wonderful everything is (you know the sort) - but in general the bad stuff is shared more than the good.

So yeah, weighing up this smattering of iffy anecdotal evidence, my conclusion is that things - so far - are going fairly well with Eliza.

She cries of course - most typically in the late afternoon / early evening - but she also has long periods during the day of being very content just looking at stuff, gurgling and generally existing.

She doesn't especially like her buggy and sometimes gets extreeeemely cranky when placed therein, but on other occasions she's absolutely fine.*

In terms of feeding, she's been a bit of whizz since day one. We are incredibly thankful for this and are very much aware that it can sometimes be a real struggle. She's not always thrilled about the bottle - although will take it - but when it comes to boobtime she's a real pro.

Her greatest trick, however, is one that amazes me every day - or every morning to be precise - which is that she consistently sleeps through the night, from 9.30-ish pm when we put her down to 7.30am when we all wake up. (I chat about this in episode three of the podcast, which you can hear below).

I keep trying to tell myself that it won't last, that at three or four months we'll hit one of those dreaded sleep regressions, but at the moment it's an absolute dream - in fact, if you add it to the fact that I now go out less,** I've probably never been more rested. (I'm touching wood as I write this).

Well rested dad

So all in all, she appears to be a relatively 'easy' baby, which I think has to be almost entirely down to luck. I mean, I can't think of anything we've done that seems especially conducive to making a calm baby - other than trying to remain relatively calm ourselves, which I suppose isn't always easy.

Anyway, that's the story so far. Bye!

*We've recently transitioned from the bassinet for newborns to the standard seat and it's much better. I think it's the not being able to see what's going on that's the distressing aspect for her.

**Last night was Alice's and my first night out since Eliza's was born. We left her with my parents while we went to dinner and a gig with friends. Understandably we were a bit nervous about it, but in the end it went reasonably well.