Four years, nine months, 11 days since trying to become a mum and three months 15 days since becoming one

Dear Louse,

I'm starting when the story has already begun. We have been a family for precisely three months and 15 days, a day which I will remember clearly til I pop my clogs.

I've been talking to someone about you and what it means to me to be a mother, and they said I should write about it. Not about the "which nappies should I buy" and "quite how often is it ok to administer Calpol" bits, but about what becoming a mother (finally) has done for me.

So far, it has been simultaneously glorious and quotidian. Your needs are so immediate and powerful that during the day I don't have time to ponder how amazing it is and how happy you've made me; it's only once you are face down, bum up in your cot that I realise I am a mum.

Although this is not about our journey to get to you, it would be wrong not to mention it in passing. The title refers to it, how long it took us to become parents.

But now you have woken up from your nap so I will stop. I will stop everytime you wake up when I'm writing, it'll be kind of like a real time record of your naps.

Signing off, Friday 11 December 2009, 11.24am