Despite some initial resistance to weaning, Baby M seems to be developing a growing appetite. When I first tried to get her to taste solids, starting with baby rice, she was not so keen. Carrot, sweet potato, pear, banana, none of it went down well. She clearly wasn’t ready. Now, at nearly eight months old, we are on three main meals a day.

I’ve ditched the baby cereal for Ready Brek or Weetabix in the morning, then a proper lunch and dinner – always veggie based with some protein and fruit to follow. For my first born, I followed Annabel Karmel’s meal planners and cooked up her recipes, and he has turned out to be a great eater. He loves all veg, which I still can’t quite believe… Some of those purees are so tasty, my husband and I will happily lick off the spoons ourselves.

I particularly like Karmel’s idea of using sweet veg, such as sweet potato (a big hit in our house) to introduce new veggies like spinach or broccoli. Peas are also popular as well as leeks. I actually find that Baby M seems to prefer the savoury food (although sweetened by the above) than pureed fruits!

But as she gets bigger and more assertive, fingers foods are also proving very popular. She is a fan of Ella’s Kitchen puffs as well as Plasmon biscuits (an Italian baby food staple) and sucking on pieces of fruit in a little fruit feeder.

She has become so used to the dummy-like item, it is often just hanging from her mouth as she plays with her hands, toys or crawls all over the place. She’s learning to multi-task from a young age.

And so we have teeth. Two to be precise, that popped up exactly when Baby M turned 6 months old. What timing. It was clear they were coming as she was salivating like no tomorrow, was particularly grouchy and wanted to knaw on everything she touched. Including the ramp on her cot.

I had prepped for this moment by buying Bonjela gel and saving all the teething toys from my first born. The rubbery triangle that goes in the freezer was a particular favourite.

With the toddler, his first teeth just popped up overnight and apart from salivating lots, there wasn’t really much crying. We did get caught out at 10 months though when a new tooth started to pop out just as we began a holiday in rural Sardinia. He started crying like no tomorrow because of the pain around midday, of course just after the local pharmacy had shut for a three-hour lunch break. I had stupidly forgotten the Bonjela and Nurofen for babies back home. It was awful. But the little trouper persevered until 3pm when we charged into the pharmacy ready to stock up.

We can’t imagine how painful it must be for them when those little teeth start protruding. The sad little faces, confusion as to what is happening and the tears are heartbreaking. Cue lots of cuddles and kisses. Mollars are a particular b**** but by then, they are bigger and you can give them lots of other little treats. For now, the nurofen is in the cabinet, the bonjela is at the ready and our life-saving rubber triangle is back in the freezer waiting patiently for its next soothing venture.

And so the time has come, Baby M is getting her first taste of solids. At just short of six months old, it’s time for the good stuff. Never one to shy away from a feed and dare I say it – she’s a little on the chubby side :), hubs and I thought she would take to eating pretty quickly. She does after all meet all the criteria for weaning such as sitting up, holding her head up and staring at us when we eat.

I began with baby rice mixed with formula milk and she was neither hot nor cold for it. After a few spoons she even seemed bored. Huh?! I persevered with carrot – that’s what I did with the toddler when I began weaning him – and again she seemed not fussed. Where was the ravenous appetite that came with every feed? I mean she took it in, moved it around, made funny faces and even spat some out – not out of disgust but confusion as to what she was supposed to do with this strange substance in her mouth. I mimicked opening my mouth to eat and she looked at me amused. I mean she swallowed some of it, so it can’t be bad?

After three days of carrot – the required time to see if there are any allergies – we have now moved on to sweet potato. Again a little bemused face stares at me more interested in playing with the spoon rather than consuming what is on it.

I know the first tastes period can take a while and we just need to persevere but I thought she would be gobbling it up. The toddler was an easy eater from the start but his sister, who is bigger than he was at the same age, seems to be taking her sweet time when it comes to food food. I guess she will eventually take to it but it’s funny how different your kids can be.

I hate wet hair. It’s strange, I know, as I have to deal with it so regularly when I wash my mane every two days but it’s one of my two biggest hates (alongside coriander). Loose wet hair actually makes me gag – having to clear it out of the shower especially. Ugh.

So you can imagine my horror in dealing with postpartum hair loss. On average we lose around 100 hairs a day, at the moment I feel like I am losing 1,000. I have clumps of it that come out at all times of day. I shudder as I take it out first thing in the morning, close my eyes as I pick off the strays that stick to my clothes and chuck out decent sized balls of hair that fall out during a blow dry. I quickly mass it up and chuck it down the toilet or out the window. Bad, I know, but looking at it makes me feel sick. Postpartum hair loss is quite common and most women notice a drastic change around three months after giving birth. It can take up to 12 months for things to get back to normal. Baby M just turned 5 months so I still have a way to go at the rate I am currently shedding.

So what are the tips for dealing with this? Healthy eating, taking vitamin supplements and avoiding blow drys and curlers. Some easier to do than others. But perhaps the best thing I can do right now is to get it cut, and boy does it need it after lockdown – my last visit to the hairdresser was in January! So husband dearest is going to have to mind the kids while mama gets her hair snipped, and perhaps dyed too to cover all the greys, but that’s another story.

Sleep regression. Just when you think your little one has got his bed and night time routine sorted, something happens to knock it all out of the park and all your hard work is gone. Night time tears, no leaving the room until they’re alseep and 2 am wake ups. Like most parents, we have had a few of those in the last three years, the most recent being in January just before I gave birth to Little L’s sister.

Too exhausted with caring for a newborn, I put off sleep training L for weeks – months – saying I would get onto it as soon as Baby M were sleeping longer in the night. I was shattered, in fact so tired that the toddler often climbed into bed with me in the middle of the night, and I let him stay there.

But a few weeks ago, I decided enough was enough. Baby M was sleeping through the night and I really had no excuse. Personally, I was fed up of sometimes spending up to 1 hour waiting for him to fall asleep. We had tried various methods in the past – controlled crying (so horrible to hear I didn’t think I could do it again) and gradual regression, where every few days I moved further away from his bed. It seems the latter is more successful with toddlers and so I tried that again.

Given I had spent night after night sitting on a pullout chair beside his bed, I decided the next step would be to sit in the middle of the room. I did that for three nights then moved further away. This went on until I was just on the other side of his bedroom door (which was open), ready to console him if he cried. It seemed to work as he got used to me no longer being next to him as he fell asleep. My mistake however was to lie on the sofabed next to him if he woke during the night. Purely for selfish tiredness reasons. So to really make this round of sleep training work, I decided to sleep on the corridor floor outside his room if he woke up during the night. Not the most comfortable but an investment for the future is what I repeatedly told myself. He would still cry and I would console him, and he even got out of his bed a few times to check I was there. I kept quiet, with the odd ‘back to bed now’ and he did it. I wouldn’t say we are fully there yet – he will still moan a bit if he wakes up at night, but two days ago I managed to tuck him back in, say a few comforting words from outside his bedroom door, and then go back to my bed.

It’s tough work and so many times I was tempted to give up, but I just persevered. I now have a toddler happy to fall asleep by himself and my evenings back – no small feat.

Before Baby M arrived, I was nervous how the toddler would react. We would tell him there was a baby in Mummy’s tummy – and he would kiss it when asked – but I don’t think he really understood what we were talking about. I don’t think many toddlers do.

The day we came home from the hospital, as we took him to the living room to meet his baby sister, the toddler had a tantrum on the stairs. This was before even setting eyes on her. Once calm, he eventually looked at her and that was it for the day. He would mainly ignore her but eventually the glimpses grew in length and now he takes pride in calling her name and saying “sister” as well as alerting me to when she is crying “cryyyyyyyyy”. Usually he runs up to her excitedly and tugs at her foot or touches her head. There’s been the occasional intention to bite her but we have pulled him away in time. The intention in general is affectionate but he is brusque and poor Baby M at times has no idea what is going on.

But the best moments are when little L will give his sister her dummy or as he did today try to put her little bouncer toys for her to see. It’s just so cute. I can’t wait for them to play together.

How is it already the weekend? I don’t see where the week goes. It was just Monday and now we’re Saturday. Wtf. Not that it makes much difference – everyday is the same under lockdown. Wake up, breakfast, look after/play with the kids, lunch, nap, walk, play, dinner, bath and bedtime. Sneak in the odd glass of wine sometimes. The main difference in this ‘new normal’ is whether it is day or night.

We’ve gone out for a few walks this week which has been nice but it’s just too stressful trying to keep a toddler at the right distance from passersby. He runs around close to them, stops in front of them…argh! But it’s just so nice to stretch our legs and the toddler loves it. Of course he cannot understand why he can’t go into the locked playground and have fun on the swings or slide…but a ride on Papa’s shoulders is also lots of fun, if not more.

I miss going to places – the playground, the museum, even the shops. The toddler always loved rummaging through the toys at the local Farah children’s charity store and we inevitably would come out with some new purchase each time we went. We’ve been doing lots of animals puzzles and sounds lately (‘Alexa can you do a goat sound please?’) and he loves it. And so I’ve decided that as soon as lockdown restrictions are lifted, we’re going to the zoo. Can’t wait to see his little face light up when he comes across a lion or monkey. I don’t know when that will be but it will be one of the first things we do.

Yesterday in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic I went to the GP surgery for my baby’s first vaccinations. I was reluctant to go given we’ve seen the number of Covid-19 related deaths rise into significant numbers in the UK this week and this Easter Sunday 12 April is supposed to be the peak. But my baby needs her jabs and they can’t be delayed. The surgery was shut, only allowing patients with urgent appointments such as ours to come in. In fact there were just 3 of us when Baby M and I arrived. Thankfully the visit was swift and the medical staff all had surgical masks, gloves and an apron. But I scrubbed us both clean as soon as we got home. Small enclosed spaces are not the best places to visit right now but it had to be done. And I was fully appreciative of the efforts the surgery staff went to for calming my nerves and getting everything done swiftly. But I will sit nervously for the next 2 weeks praying for no symptoms. Yes I am paranoid but with two small kids and a diabetic husband, I can’t help it.

And we have to do this all again in a month. Who knows what it will be like then? Will we still be in lockdown? Probably. In just a few weeks our lives have changed so dramatically but if we’ve learned anything it is to appreciate each other and those on the frontline working tirelessly for us – NHS staff, supermarket workers, delivery drivers, rubbish collectors … I read a powerful piece this week by Jonathan Freedland about how the coronavirus pandemic has changed our views of what counts the most in life. There are so many things that we took for granted before – going to the shops, friends that perhaps we hadn’t seen in a while, even going to work… I hope the world will come out humbler from this crisis.

It’s tough being a mum during the current lockdown. I have a toddler who has endless energy to burn and a newborn I wanted to take out for daily walks. I am not going to complain too much though – we have a spacious home and a garden, much more than others less fortunate. Our days are not structured into rigid routines though I aim to do some home schooling for the toddler each day. It makes it a bit easier that Baby M still needs to sleep a lot during the day, that gives me time to focus on little L and teaching him new things. But a small baby also needs attention and balancing the two 24/7 is tough. I am on maternity leave so at least I don’t have to work from home. Hubs is not working at the moment but he hurt his shoulder last week doing the garden so can’t help much with the kiddies. And so each day is a mission. I try to set myself small tasks to accomplish each day – not too much – and get a real satisfaction when I managed to do them. Give Baby M a bath, write a blog post, teach the toddler something new, bake a cake – each day one of them gets done and I feel like I have accomplished something major.

I see posts of those who spend their lockdown time catching up on movies, reading books, having video calls with friends, I envy them. A power nap of 5 minutes is a luxury in this house. Of course luck has it that when the toddler naps after lunch, the baby needs a feed and nappy change and my one-hour slot of getting some daytime kip quickly fades away. But today was a good day. The baby fed as soon as the toddler fell asleep and I got a precious 30 minute-nap. Bliss.

Spending so much time together can of course mean that tempers may flare. There have been a few squabbles and some bickering but I am cherishing the time we have together. Especially in such a dark uncertain time. How long will we be stuck in our homes? How long until we can go out to the park again and have play dates? Who knows. So in the meantime, if the toddler wants to come into my bed during the night, then so be it. Sleep (re)training can wait for another day or perhaps month. At the moment it feels just like taking each day as it comes and cherishing one another.

I am exhausted. No surprises there given I have a toddler and a one-month old baby at home, but hey, I am really really tired.

Is it bad that I miss the days when the toddler could go to nursery? Of course I missed my child during the day, but with a newborn to look after, there was a bit of relief when I could sleep when the baby slept! Now with schools closed in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, there is no rest whatsoever. Keep it fun and educational for the toddler while soothing a fussy baby. Keep an eye on roving toddler, who loves going up and down the stairs, while feeding baby. Try to limit the toddler’s TV watching even though it often feels like the easiest thing to have a few minutes of rest.

All while washing, cleaning and staying on top of things, or at least trying to. Luckily hubs does most of the cooking!

At night, I breastfeed Baby M three times. The toddler of course is going through a sleep regression, meaning he will wake up at some point – it varies per night – and wants to come into bed with me. I am relenting at the moment as I am just too tired. And I end up with both of them with my bed. Baby wanting a cuddle and toddler sprawled across the duvet. Hubs has escaped into the guest room. I know it’s not ideal but we will get there once baby is feeding less during the night. Oh and forgot to add the toddler also wants me, and only me, to put him to bed at night and stay with him while he falls asleep. Same thing during the day for his nap. At least then I can sneak in a cheeky nap with baby in tow. Every wink counts.

Sleep I miss you, when will I see you again properly? Ie for doses of longer than 2-3 hours?! I can’t wait.