I can’t sleep – I have been having really vivid flashbacks to Elsie’s birth and I can’t relax at all now. The trauma still hasn’t faded, well, it does fade but then I remember again. My friend was saying that there is some kind of hormone which kicks in after women give birth to induce a kind of mild amnesia, so you can face the prospect of possibly doing it all again one day, but it doesn’t seem to be working in my case. Well anyway, let’s not dwell on that any longer….

Things have been lovely the last few days, I emerged from under the big black cloud of assignment writing on Tuesday, which meant life could go back to normal (whatever normal is these days!) Elsie has been on top form and very cheerful, her new cream seems to be working marvellously and her eczema is much better. She still scratches herself to ribbons given half a chance with her amazing super fast growing nails (they are like that bridge where as soon as they’ve finished painting it they need to start again!) so we have to constantly put her mittens on. It’s been really nice and sunny which she seems to like as we can get more fresh air. She is having good naps most days now, but her sleeping at night time isn’t what it used to be. It’s a tricky one cause she gets really grumpy if she doesn’t have a nap, but then I think is that worth it if it means we all get a good night’s sleep? She is going off to sleep really well these days without crying much at all – we have been giving her a bath before bedtime each day and that seems to be doing the trick, but then she’s waking up four times a night or so, mostly we can just put her dummy back in and she does drop straight back off, but last night I had to feed her twice which I haven’t done for ages. Mind you, I was probably keeping her awake with my tossing and turning and horrible remembrances!

This is a picture of all the family taken on the cobb at Lyme Regis.