I don’t know about other mums out there but I literally can’t wait for my daughter to start talking.

To know what’s going on inside her precious little head would just be amazing. I know that one day I’ll look back upon this hour and rue the fact that I wished to speed up time. I guess that right now I am just so excited to learn more about what makes my little girl tick.

My Amelia makes loads of gorgeous little sounds and spews out noise that seems to make complete sense to her but very little sense to anyone else.

I make sure that I spend loads of time talking to her and explaining things to her so that she will be able to pick up on my verbalisations and mimic them in her own time.

Practical Parenting and Pregnancy gives five great tips to help develop your baby’s speech:

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Coverdry was launched at the London Baby Show in October last year and has since made waves on the parenting scene. Baby toilet training has a new aid.

Entrepreneur and mother of three Tracey Hollins, the inventor of coverdry, came up with the idea of a ‘seat protector’ when her son was toilet training and accidentally wet the car seat.

Tracey says “As a working mum having to wash the bed covers and quilt most days was a real bind as the bed protectors would only protect the bottom sheet.” This inspired her to design a 3-in-1 cover that would protect the sheet and quilt, to make life a little less stressful for child and parent alike.

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For me, one of the most difficult things as a new mum was not knowing why my baby was crying: was she too hot, too cold, hungry, tired, in pain, in want of cuddles, just fussing?

Talk about frustration.

As time progressed, I learned to decipher my daughter’s strange language and so I began to understand the meanings behind the noises she made. But that by no means meant that I had alleviated the ambiguity of the cry!

I have learnt to accept that sometimes we just never figure out what our little ones are on about, and we can only try our best to make their lives as simple and easy as possible.

A crying baby can be super tiring and I found that it is best to have a plan of action when attempting to soothe your baby. This means that when whatever you are trying doesn’t work; you are mentally ready to try something else.

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I am not much of an administrator. My husband planned our wedding whilst I instructed from afar, my darling man also plans our holidays and often, much to his disgust, serves as my PA – reminding me of admin issues that need to be dealt with.

So naturally when our baby girl was born, hubby compiled a mental checklist of things that needed to be done. Not everyone has a PA at one’s beck and call, especially not living with them, so I have written down a to-do list for all admin-fearing mums out there:

Activate paternity leave: Lucy Symons, birth and postnatal doula, says “Your partner should notify his work as soon as you’re in labour and again when your baby arrives to let his employer know he’s starting his paternity leave.”

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Are you going to have a boy or girl?! When it comes to knowing the sex of your baby, there are a number of old wives tales that you are most certain to be subjected to by well-meaning, but equally annoying, family and friends.

For instance, if your bump is high it’s a girl and if it’s low, you’re having a boy; if you crave sweets, it’s a girl; if your feet are cold all the time, it’s a boy; and beat this: a slightly larger right breast indicates a boy, but a left swelling suggests the mum will have a girl.

Blah blah blah…! Ready for the myth-busting truth? Based on an investigation by Lynsey Haywood, here are the results:

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