Sitting time equals reading time

One thing I have learnt since the birth of Miss E is that a requirement of early parenting is a lot of time spent sitting. Miss E loves to feed during the day and, to do that, I must sit.

Now, I like to sit. I won't complain about it. But when you have to sit for many many hours per day, you need to have something to do.

You can spend some of the time looking at your baby and marvelling at the wonder of new human life but there is only so long you can spend on that.

I have found that a good book is essential to enjoying my sitting time with Miss E.

Three of the books I have read recently while feeding Miss E are:

1. Light a Penny Candle - Maeve Binchy: Ahhh, my old friend Maeve. It is not fashionable to love Maeve, but I do. This one is set in Ireland and London during and after WWII. It is Maeve's debut novel and I loved it. I found myself providing a daily update to Mr. B on the events of Light a Penny Candle. This one also motivated us to take inspiration from post-War London as we raise Miss E - i.e. lots of sardines on toast, listening to the radio and sing-alongs at the piano (note to self: must buy piano).

2. Afterwards - Rosamund Lupton. Oh, I loved this one. I would call it a thriller but it was the beautiful depiction of the relationship between a mother and her children that had me in tears at the end. Disclaimer: It may be "I've been a mum for five months" hormones that caused me to react so strongly to this book. I lent it to my Dad and his response was: "Hmmmmmmmm, it's okay". Right then. I read Afterwards after reading Rosamund Lupton's debut novel - Sister - which I also highly recommend. Both Afterwards and Sister were recommended to me by Amazon after I read reviews for another great debut novel - Before I Go To Sleep. Thank you Amazon, your recommendations were outstanding. And thank you to my local library who supplied all of these books to me for free.

3. Bossypants - Tina Fey. Tina Fey, I love you. My favourite chapter was "A Mother's Prayer for Her Child" which you can read yourself by clicking right here.

So, my three key points on this topic are:

1. Feeding a baby = sitting.

2. Sitting quickly becomes boring without something to do.

3. Find a fun activity that you can do while sitting. Reading is a good one.