Life with your baby
A day in the life of a six-week old baby
To give some idea of what new babies are like - here is a typical day in the life of Daisy, who is six weeks old. Sophie has given up her job to look after Daisy. Will, her partner, is at work during the day.
5am: Daisy wakes for a feed, and then sleeps again immediately.
8am: Sophie gets up, showers, dresses and has breakfast. Will has left for work.
8.30am: Daisy awakes and Sophie dresses her.
9am: Daisy has another feed. She feeds every four or five hours during the day. Many babies still feed more frequently at this age.) Sophie changes her nappy and Daisy sleeps again. Sophie bottle-feeds Daisy and now makes up a 24-hour supply of bottles in one batch.
10am: Daisy sleeps for most of the morning. Sophie does jobs around the house, takes Daisy out shopping, or visits friends to give Sophie some adult contact.
2pm: Daisy feeds again. She is awake for most of the afternoon and prefers sitting in her bouncy chair to lying in her pram. She follows Sophie with her eyes. Sophie thinks Daisy can now recognise her by sight, rather than by smell or sound. Daisy likes best being held, so Sophie holds her, talks to her and plays with her.
5.30-6pm: Bathtime. "At first it took me two hours to bath her, but now I can do it quite quickly," says Sophie.
6pm: Will comes home and Sophie gladly hands Daisy over. Daisy is often unsettled and fretful in the evening and wants feeding every hour or two. Will holds her and feeds her and talks to her, while Sophie cooks supper. 9pm: Sophie puts Daisy into her crib. "You can tell when she's really tired because she goes like a rag doll," she says. She used to let Daisy go to sleep in her pram and then transferred her to her crib when she went to bed herself, but she's now trying to get Daisy to recognise the bedroom as the place to sleep at night. Daisy usually goes to sleep at around 10pm and doesn't wake till four or five in the morning.