Sleep, baby, sleep

Did you know there were such things - well, people - as sleep counsellors for babies? If you didn't then now you do and Jamie's came to see him on Friday.

If you're a regular reader, you'll know that R Jamie hasn't been the best snoozer over the last 11 and a bit months. And neither, consequently, have his mummy and daddy.

Vanessa made the appointment with the sleep counsellor just over a fortnight ago and, ironically, he has been much better since - principally, we think, because his routine has changed. We were in Northern Ireland for a week and, in recent days, he started nursery. All of this has made him more tired than usual, helped him to get his head down and helped him to keep it down. He's also become more active generally - it's very clear that he's not going to be one of life's sit-arounders (new word there - hope you like it).

Before his recent conversion to something like normal sleep, we've sought advice from various sources including other parents and books. And we kept being told we were being too soft on him by not letting him cry and cry and cry. But, according to his wonderfully understanding sleep counsellor, letting him "cry it out" is not normally the best way to go about these things. Indeed, according to her, it's likely to just upset him even more - which is what I've been arguing all along (yea me).

In addition to the moral support, she also gave us several very useful hints and tips which should hopefully keep us on the path to success. One very interesting fact she came out with was that babies of Jamie's age should sleep for around 11 hours each night. So, given he goes to his scratcher at 7pm, we should expect to see him stay down until 6am. At the moment he's routinely an hour short of this - he generally stirs around 5am - but we're getting closer and will keep at it.

I'm off shortly for some lunch, Sunday papers, sport on telly and Jamie-baiting. But the highlight of the day (sorry, I'm about to be a nerd again) will hopefully be later when the European election results are announced - I've even got a box of chicken wings in for the occasion.

It's now very clear that our esteemed Prime Minister has as much intention of standing down as that wee, fat, speccy bloke in North Korea who's also unelected. I don't know about you, but I'm absolutely sick, sore and tired of listening to Brown and his bovver boys process on to our TV screens to tell us "what the British people really want." As a proud British person - and one no longer stuck in the Westminster bubble - I think I have a fair idea myself.

The vast majority want that embarrassment of a man (did you see him try to be cool next to Obama in Normandy yesterday?) out of Number 10 without delay. But unless those around him summon the guts to do something about it, we're going to be stuck with him for another year yet. No matter what your politics are, this is not a good situation for our country to be in.