Sleeping patterns You catch me at 3:35am on a Monday morning. I'm eating a Sainsbury's Strawberry Indulgence ice cream but more to the point, I'm completely wide awake. Such has been the change in our sleeping routine over the past few weeks that the irony of this moment is that for the first time at this hour Thierry is still fast asleep but thanks to my body clock doing an automatic all bells wake up call I am sitting here waiting for the little lad to wake up. The adrenaline of the moment makes me feel like I have the caffeine from a Starbucks triple shot grande skinny wet latte coursing through my veins rather than just the various flavourings and colourants from that over sweet frozen delight.

It's funny how we have adjusted to the lack of sleep and twice a night feeds. During the daylight hours this weekend I've felt a bit jaded but when Thierry's lungs provide us with that night-time wake up call heralding an imminent feeding need the adrenalin kicks in and I scamper around the house to;

• boil water to warm up his milk bottle
• remove milk bottle from fridge and find one pint empty jug (always the challenge)
• switch Classic FM on in the kitchen in advance of feed
• back upstairs to fill his cotton wool dish with warm water to clean him at nappy change
• arrange nappy and change of clothes in case he's wet
• (boring point for would be parents: getting all this done in advance of lifting him out of his basket halves the amount of time it takes with baby in arms and is whole lot safer than juggling a tetchy baby)

On a good night he starts with a protracted wimper that is enough to wake me up and gives me a 5 minute headstart to do the above before he wakes up proper. Sometimes though he gets into full clarion mode screaming like a hi-de-hi announcer on speed.

One of the by products of the change in sleep pattern, apart from a sweetened tooth and more snacking is that I dream so much nowadays.

Last night I had my wierdest and most vivid to date. In a wood panelled room in Windsor Castle I was having afternoon tea with the Queen and Prince Philip. It was very convivial and we were talking like old friends. We were even discussing the merits of a Breaking News story on the TV about one of their grandsons.  ¶ 3:40 am