September 1997.

Matthew is six months old, and it is time for me to go back to work. I have arranged with work and the nursery to visit Matthew twice a day to breastfeed him. I will go down mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and as far as work is concerned I will absorb most of this in my lunch break. This arrangement will help both of us to settle into our new routine more smoothly.

Matthew's first introduction to nursery was an hours visit, and I stayed on the premises. Matthew seemed to enjoy himself, so the next day I left him and went for a break into town for a few hours. Day three was a disaster, which ended in a trip to casualty... we didn't even make it to nursery. Matthew tried to grab out for the ringing phone and I dropped him. I was so distraught. Matthew however was fine. I was given some head injury advise from the hospital, but basically they said a fall like that, onto soft carpet, would rarely be serious. I felt so bad though. We went swimming together for the last time in a while, and I was really sad because Matthew loves the water... but he also enjoyed the nursery in the afternoon. I hope he will be happy once he is there full time.

His first full day was hard, apparently Matthew didn't sleep until he finally passed out at 4pm, and we had a very disturbed night. When I dropped Matthew off the next day he looked depressed. I hated leaving him like that, but I'm sure he will end up enjoying himself at nursery - there will be so much he can gain from being there, which I just wouldn't be able to do for him. I am also enjoying being back at work, and I think the break is doing both of us good. We had another disturbed night, but I just hugged Matthew and tried to reasure him. On his third full day his face seemed to say "I don't want to go, but I'll I know you'll be back soon". He also seemed happier this evening and slept well during the night. Finally he seems settled, He enjoyed his fourth day at nursery, and sat up properly for the first time. Matthew loves his new routine... but I'm very tired after my first week back, and leading a "double life" gets confusing, I'm glad its the weekend!

Matthew started pushing himself up onto all fours...I think he will be crawling soon, he certainly has plenty of encouragement from the slightly older children at nursery. He seems to be spoiled rotten by the nursery staff too. There are two male nursery nurses, which is unusual, but which I think will be a great benefit for Matthew, and he seems to really get on well with them. He has picked up a cold from the other children, Matthew was snuffley for a day or two, then Karl and I went down with it for a week! He has settled into a new routine, before he had two naps during the day and slept for 8 hours at night, waking once. Now he has just on nap after lunch, but is sleeping longer at night: maybe he will stop waking soon?

The other things new this month are that Matthew has started to drop things deliberately, he had his first bath in the grown up bath, and he took his first unaided steps, moving from his high chair to the sofa in order to grab the TV remote control. Matthew can now cruise! He also painted his first picture at nursery.