First Feeds

New born eyes always cry with pain
At the first look at the morning sun
Fool (if you think it's over) - Chris Rea

Babies are badly designed. Can you imagine how long one would last in the wild compared to other new borns from the animal kingdom? They can't crawl, let alone walk and not only do they have no teeth, the whole feeding thing is a huge struggle.

In her first week Cate was almost put on a drip because she refused to feed, and she brought this attitude home with her from hospital. I could understand her reluctance. Whoever said: "you can't take out more than you put in", had never seen a baby vomit. Even when the milk stayed down her windy cries caused her such pain that it was easy to understand her happy burblings when the milk did come back up. Fortunately at that age I could rest her tummy on my shoulder and pat her on the back without her cries perforating my ear drums.

Gaviscon oh Gaviscon (as I believe Glen Campbell once sung) is only a temporary answer. In time it was something she gradually grew out of, as people told me she would, but you grow-up with your child and you share their pain and their anxieties.

The First Laugh

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies." Peter Pan

The first six to ten weeks of a baby's life are arguably the most difficult for the parents as all the infant does is eat, sleep and scream, without any concept of day and night. I loved the fact that I was a father and I loved my child for what I knew she would become, but I had no real connection with her. For her the feeling was clearly mutual. I was just the one who did not feed her.

That changed one afternoon after work when, armed with a suggestion I'd read in a book, I experienced my first interactive moment with Cate. I got her attention and then stuck my tongue out at her. She gave a pensive expression and then stuck her tongue out at me. The start of a beautiful frienship.