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I've now been back at work for a week and it's been surprising how easy the transition has proved to be. Even a mid-week trip to Brussels and the usual litany of small fires which I am required to put out in the course of any given week didn't impinge too much on my smooth re-entry into that particular orbit.

At home, Olivia and Tick appear to have taken it in their stride as well. Aided by a spell of cold but bright weather, there's been daily excursions to the park, a run of meetings with midwives, health visitors and clinics (all of whom pronounced themselves very satisfied with progress) and even a spot of house cleaning. Which, in week one of my return to work, is surely beyond the call of duty.

Oh yeah ... them!

Moreover, the health visitor who came to see Olivia on Tuesday was interested to hear of our settled routine and night-time reluctance to do anything other than sleep. Upshot: "why not just let her sleep through then?". Which has got to be good news - and preposterously advanced for a baby that is not yet a month old. Clever girl ...

Naturally, we will not tell our friends who have also recently had babies of this. During our pregnancies, a book called "The Truth about Fatherhood" did the rounds and in this book there is a section on the "Smug Other B*stards". Which referred to parents of children who, contrary to norm or expectation, were sailing through the early phase of parenthood as though the entire thing ws nothing more than an entertaining diversion. Now, I'm not going to claim that that is precisely our position, or view of the matter ... but when your daughter is letting you get seven hours sleep a night just three-and-a-half weeks after being born, then it is inevitable that the parents of other children may react badly to such news. May, indeed, decide that we are those "Smug Other B*stards".

Having said that, maybe I should stop tempting fate on the Internet ...