Amazing as it seems to us, Jasper will be a year old before my next column appears in print. At risk of sounding like everybody’s parents, God, twelve months have flashed past in a blur.

A lot has happened this year, but all of it pales in comparison to being part of our little man’s vital early development process.

His first night on earth is still a vivid memory for me. For some reason, Carolina and I decided that we should stay awake in shifts to keep a watch over JD in his hospital bassinet.

Nature being the stand-up comic that she is, Jasper arrived at five-twenty in the morning rather than letting us have a last decent night’s sleep, so by that evening we were both running on empty.

That first two hours, forcing myself to stay awake, while the near-silent baby blinked his huge liquid eyes and probably wondered what kind of parents would let their new child live in such a disgustingly dirty room, were the most difficult. I just couldn’t stop my eyes from closing, only waking up as I began to fall off the bed.

Jasper couldn’t take to breastfeeding and spent his first few days badly dehydrated, with cracking dry lips and sagging skin. A million kind and well-meant words of advice from nurses couldn’t prevent us from wanting to feed our child, no matter how important it was for him to bond with his mother.

Eventually we bought a breast pump and fed him expressed milk, but first we introduced Similac from a tiny two-ounce cup, which was ‘fun’.

Contrast that with the last twenty-four hours. We put the boy to bed about nineish and had an unbroken night until seven-fifteen. Breakfast for our progeny was half a banana and an entire organic pear, cut into chunks, which JD shovelled into his own mouth (granted, a fair amount ended up down the side of the chair).

Two hours of fast crawling and chair-assisted standing later, he pulled himself up for a hug – Jasper’s way of asking for a nap – and the first cycle of the day was over.

Happily for everybody concerned, Jasper’s Nana (my mum) arrives from England shortly, to help celebrate his birthday and spend some quality time with her grandson.

Time only goes quickly when you’re having fun, and there’s certainly been plenty of that since he came into our lives. Sleep well.

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