Bonding?

Like all new parents, I want to form a strong father-and-son bond with Harry. However, I think my efforts in this direction have suffered a bit of a knock in recent weeks.

Firstly, I went along to the doctor’s with Harry for his second round of injections. Melissa had taken Harry for his first set a few weeks earlier and he was, by all accounts, pretty upset at the whole experience.

So this time, I went along as well. By the time we’d walked to the surgery, Harry was fast asleep, so you can imagine the nasty shock he got when he woke up to find a smiling nurse jabbing a long needle into the top of his leg. Poor Harry looked heartbroken and, judging by the look in his eyes, he didn’t think much of me for allowing it to happen.

Anyway, I’ve since spent plenty of time trying to rebuild Harry’s trust in me – only to undermine all the good work by taking him swimming.

Things started pretty well. We took Harry to Plas Madoc for the excellent parent and paddler session on a Sunday morning. We bought the necessary inflatable, popped Harry in it and he seemed quite happy bobbing up and down in the water.

Then the wave machine started; Harry was almost instantly submerged by a wave which caught both of us by surprise. Fortunately, Melissa was on hand to pick up the pieces and Harry was soon back to his smiling self – albeit with his trust in me once again thoroughly undermined.

We’re definitely going to persist with the swimming, though, because Harry did seem to enjoy it for the most part. Next time, when the wave machine siren goes, I’ll be a little more careful.

Sleep: part two

AS I’VE said before, sleep becomes something of an obsession when you’re a parent. Not just your own sleep (although that is high on your list of priorities), but your baby’s too.

There’s certainly no shortage of advice on babies’ sleeping habits but, typically, we’ve taken very little notice of this, opting for our own ‘make-it-up-as-you-go-along’ approach.

Until a couple of weeks ago, we’d keep Harry downstairs with us (usually asleep) until we went to bed but we’ve now started putting Harry to bed on his own.

On the face of it, this should have helped us to relax more in the evening. In fact, it has had to opposite effect. Both Melissa and I will sit downstairs listening to the monitor intently in case Harry stirs, meaning we can’t even concentrate enough to watch television.

And we race upstairs at the slightest hint of movement to check on him. All in all, it’s pretty stressful.

We are getting used to it – slowly – just in time to start worrying about when is the right time to move him to his own room.

Official guidance seems to suggest putting babies in their own rooms from about six months onwards. If we follow this advice, that gives me another few weeks of decent sleep – before Melissa starts kicking me in the middle of the night to go and check on Harry.