6 weeks

Well, we have hit the magic 6 week mark, as in "Once they hit 6 weeks they...{insert one of the following} sleep 8 hours, only cry ocassionally, make their own bed," and, I have to say, I believe we have been misled. Sure, she is interacting a lot more, gurgling and smiling in a scarily ingratiating fashion -don't worry Juno, no matter how much you howl through the night, we won't send you back- but any sense of us being on easy street and cruising towards adolesence is way off track...

Not that I had put too much faith in it. But when everyone else's baby was an absolute darling by 6 weeks, it does make you wonder about the rose tint of retrospection and perhaps also an absurd element of competitiveness: example, of course Juno is a little angel, look at her gene pool. Frankly, I couldn't care if I don't get another unbroken sleep for the next 10 years, as long as she is healthy, happy and only dates guys I approve of {aside} Is it just the sleeplessness or am I entering a full-blown delusional state?.

Jess and I keep learning however, or at least we keep bumbling forward, not entirely sure that what we are doing is 100% textbook, but -I keep reassuring her- who the hell wrote this stupid book anyway? Feed on demand or not? Don't pick them up straight away when they cry? Jeez, she is six weeks old: give her the benefit of the doubt: if she is crying, I figure she probably does want something to happen, and to happen pretty bloody fast. It's not as if they are born with any reserves of patience or saintly forebearance...