Three months and one day

In theory I quite like taking Alice to the clinic to be weighed (10lb 13oz as of Tuesday), as there's toys and beanbags and a chance to chat to other parents. And yet in reality there's always one person there who makes me wish I'd stayed at home. This week, a well-meaning but irritating old woman, who came and looked over my shoulder while her daughter and grandson were in with the health visitors:

WMBIOW: I see you're bottle-feeding - it's taking such a long time...
Me: Well unfortunately she can't breastfeed because of her cleft palate [thinking: even if I was choosing to bottle-feed with no medical reason, it's really none of your business].
WMBIOW: Ooh, no! Aw. But don't worry, they can operate on that these days you know.
Me: Yes, she's having her first operation in a couple of weeks [thinking: oh REALLY, wow, they can operate? Thanks for the info, somehow I'd missed out on that despite being her MOTHER].

I then sat and gritted my teeth through her vaguely pitying noises until she changed the subject to knitting. Sigh.

Eight weeks and five days

Further dispatches from the 'people be interfering' frontline of parenthood: went to the clinic for Alice's weigh-in today and she started crying while we were waiting. The woman next to me confidently leaned over and told me 'she's hungry'. Why do people DO that? Even though I KNEW that Alice was crying because I'd woken her up and taken her out of her buggy into a noisy, hot room, and food wasn't really what she wanted, I ended up giving her a bottle just so a stranger wouldn't judge me.

Five weeks and three days

Tough night and day with Alice. She's been feeding at totally random intervals, some as short as an hour, and my failure to anticipate this makes me feel like a horrible mother as I faff about getting the feeds ready while she screams inconsolably. She's had a few quite peaceful naps but when she's awake she's crying; there's no in between where she's awake and happy.

Didn't help that when I got to the checkout in Sainsbury's with her in the baby carrier this morning the cashier said 'doesn't your baby need a hat?' Instead of telling her to mind her own business I just pointed out that she had a hat, it was in the basket and I would be putting it on when we got outside. Undeterred, she then moved on to speculate that the suit Alice was wearing wasn't warm enough. I wonder if people realise the damage they do with comments like this. I knew that Alice was perfectly cosy and managed to stay calm by telling myself (and the cashier) this repeatedly, but it would take a very confident mother to shrug off other people's opinions altogether. And I don't think I'm that very confident mother...

Tomorrow we have to to take the train up to Guys in London so Alice can be assessed before her lip surgery in April. It's the longest/furthest trip we've done with her - I just pray she isn't in the same frame of mind as today, because I don't fancy dealing with all this in public and in a totally strange environment.