Hi everyone. I'm sorry this is going to be a bit of a selfish post. I did a whole lot of persies yesterday and Matilda deleted them. I don't know why I let her near the computer when I'm posting because this has happened several times!! I'm just feeling so tired at the moment. Matilda has been waking between 5 and 5:30am every morning and it's just running me into the ground. It wouldn't be so bad if she did a decent sleep during the day so I could have a rest and some time to myself but she only does one or two half hour naps. It's not even time to make and eat a sandwich. So I'm starting each day feeling angry and resentful. DH just stays in bed or goes back to bed once she's up and fed because she SCREAMS if I try and leave and one of us may as well get some rest, but I still find myself snapping at him out of envy. And I really don't think there's much I can do. Most parents of early wakers say they tried everything and nothing worked. So I just have to hope its a phase. I'm terrified of doing a 4am feed with a newborn and then up for the day with a toddler. And for the daycare update...well I ended up looking at three places and taking the third place I saw which I was really pleased with. It's home based care and really nicely set up and the carer seems really nice and really competent. There were no grown men sleeping on the floor!! Matilda had her first day on Monday and what a big day it was for her! I took her over a 9am and tried to explain I was leaving but I don't think it really occured to her that mummy really would leave her at a complete stranger's house so she wandered off into the cubby and unfortunately didn't see me leave. I think this was a bit of a mistake but it probably wouldn't have made a big difference to the day. I got text updates through the day that she was a bit unsettled on and off, but had her lunch and a nap. But after her nap she went into meltdown and I was called in. I got there and the carer said to me, "Matilda is what I'd call a screamer". Hmmmm. She didn't mean to be critical I don't think and went on to say, this is obviously just something she does when she's very distressed which is why she called me. And next week she only want's to take her for one day rather than two again. So I'm hoping this all works out ok and she doesn't flunk out of daycare!! The other downside was that two other kids had colds and of course Matilda woke up with a cold yesterday. My heart sank when the friend that recommended it told me that Oscar (her nephew who also goes) is "always sick". This means Matilda will "always be sick" because she picks up everything and colds are never just colds. They go to her chest and hang around for a couple of weeks. Sighhhhhhhhhhh. There's no easy way, is there. Anyway, I'd better go and actually do some mothering. Oh and I did write up a big piece on it the post I lost, but I had a GREAT time with all the Sydney/Canberrra girls. It was really special to get together like that and I really hope we can do it again before another 18 months go by!! Hope everyone is doing OK, especially those doing it a bit tough lately.