Siblings

How strange to have 2 such different children, who are brother and sister. Daniel has always just been Daniel until now, and suddenly he is a brother. This seems like such a wonderful thing to be able to give him - a role he can take pride in when it suits him, and ignore when it doesn't. It is nice to think he isn't sort of alone in the world. And lucky Abi has arrived in the world already a sister as well as a daughter.

It is strange to imagine how the next few weeks and months will pan out as they exist on their parallel yet very different time schedules. Daniel has now long understood the significance of the 24 hour day and GMT. He sleeps 7 til 7, eats regular meals, goes to school and plays in the afternoon. Abi functions around a vague 4 hour sort of thing. She wakes up and has a look around. Then she likes to have a little snackeroo, but isn't usually awfully hungry at first. Sometimes she will look dozy for a while. Then she has what I think of as 'Abi chat time'. Every day she seems to open her eyes for a little longer, and has a little time where she is just quiet and thoughtful, looks at things and listens to me waffle on at her. Then she generally has a change, a bigger feed and eventually drifts back off again for a few hours. Of course it doesn't always go like that, sometimes she will sleep for an hour or two and just want a quick feed. Or just get up for a change and snackeroo before dozing off again.

Somehow these two beings co-exist and fit in around each other just about fine. I see some tough mornings ahead where Abi will have to sacrifice some snack and cuddle time to get her big brother to school. And other times where Dan might have to read himself a bedtime story occasionally if Abi is particularly unsettled. But how lovely to think that they will always, always have that special sibling bond.