All the experts say books are a great way to help siblings prepare for a new baby brother or sister, but which ones are tried and tested? I quizzed parents to find out which ones worked and why. The age, race and gender of the characters affected many parents' choices. Parents also looked for books that reflected their child's interests.

Very young children might like Helen Fuller's board book My New Baby.

For those who are learning to read or reading, The New Baby from Usbourne First Experiences was suggested as firm favourite by child minder and stay at home mum to two girls Mrs Cherry, who says 'my 7yo loved the illustrations and felt the pictures helped her know what to expect. She also liked the format, easy sentences for children to read at the top and more detailed ones for adults at the bottom. I liked it because of an illustration showing the mum breastfeeding, usually bottles are featured in new baby books.'

Easter holidays are upon us and as always London's buzzing with fun things to do for all the family.

Whether you're native to the Capital or thinking of popping down over the Easter break (or any other time of year), you might be wondering how baby-friendly London really is.

Having a baby is like falling in love. At first, it's pure infatuation.

You spend days on end staring into your loved one's pupils. Nothing makes you prouder than stepping out with your little heartthrob.

Then the honeymoon wears off, and you're left with a clingy but taciturn life partner (approaching two decades) who turns his nose up at your food, makes eyes at strangers and farts ad lib.

Sleep deprivation takes its toll on even the most serene mama and if you're stuck indoors talking gaga all day, you might think about padding the walls.

Do you look at your babies or children and get inkilings of what they might be?

How early can you predict what they might be in the future? At birth, one year old, two, three, thirteen, twenty one?  Personalities, temperament, interests and preferences can appear very early.

One of my favourite reads as a parent is the family supplement in The Guardian Weekend on a Saturday.  Many of the articles are like extended blog posts, packed full of the stories of real family life. Last weekend I read it at our local arts centre while my daughter did her Drama lesson and one article profiling Matt Damon's family really got me thinking.

His mother, an early year's professor, felt she knew her son would be an actor, and his brother an artist, from when they were very young, based on how they liked to play. Her predictions came true. As an early years professor, and with hindsight, it's perhaps easy to predict, or to feel you have predicted something. But there was something in it. I laughed at the image of a two year old Matt Damon refusing to leave the dressing up area at play school and I applauded his mum for telling the staff not to worry and to just let him be. While I try and give my children a fully rounded play experience, they both have very different ideas about what they enjoy.  As they grow I can see more and more natural preferences emerging. Property management, chef, office worker, pianist, artist, astronaut all look like favourable options...

I remember the feeling most strongly with my first child ....

... the urge to grab the clock and stop time passing so I could make the most of every single moment of baby time.  Then I started to take a picture a day to save in a special folder on my computer and I began to enjoy watching her grow and change. With my second child it was a case of scribbling down whatever I could to remember him as a baby, and accepting that one child only needs so many photos of their life.

This week I wanted to explore some of the ways you can document and craft memories of the baby days.

Daisy Baby classes work on object permanence a lot, with routines which allow baby to come in and out of eye contact with mum and other babies. Classes also incorporate lots of brain gym (cross lateral moves) to wire the hemispheres and everything is repeated three times over, to install muscle memory.  This reminds me of my mum, who when I forgot my camera, would tell me to blink very slowly to take a mental photograph.  You can't predict the random moments your brain will etch on your memory, but you can borrow some of its techniques to embed some of your own.

Memories are made in all sorts of ways.  When I was pregnant I turned to the old cliché of knitting and crochet.  My efforts at clothing were pretty rubbish/too small but I did find crocheting this Sock Monkey play mat out of granny squares very therapeutic.  Whenever I look at the blanket nowadays, thrown across my daughter's doll's bed, I think back to the evening in the top right picture.  I have a very vivid memory of my husband and I lying on the floor with our baby, marveling as she tried to copy our facial expressions and sounds.

Parenting advice. You can't escape it.

It starts from the minute you mention that you're trying to conceive. It spreads when your bump begins to show. And once baby arrives, it kicks in full force.

Cover his head, he's cold (actually he's sweating); Feed him, he's hungry (he's just vomited from eating too much); Put him down, you'll spoil him (because love and comfort ruins babies); Don't breastfeed him to sleep, he's using you as a dummy (that's actually quite insulting)... oh it goes on and on.

The other day, my friend Jo told me she'd found an old video of herself breastfeeding her baby girl.

'I'm going to post it on my Facebook page.'

Back in the day, I would have assumed she was simply sharing with friends and family.  But in the current climate, it's an act of defiance.  Jo is putting herself on the front lines of a grassroots movement that I'm dubbing Occupy your Breasts.

Here I am on my 29th birthday, 5 months pregnant with my first and looking for new, non alcoholic ways to celebrate.  We hired a boat on the Thames and picnicked.  You might spot the Jo Jo Bebe Maman bag, the birthday presents have shifted slightly, to mark my mum-to-be status

I think it is fair to say I was an early adopter to pregnancy amongst my closest friends.  Shortly after this my husband and I decided to leave behind our life and friends in London to set up business and home in Nottingham.  I decided to leave teaching and to be a full time mum for a few years. Looking back it was a pretty huge transition.  I approached it alot like freshers week at university and joined as many antenatal or baby related groups as I could.  I soon made lots of wonderful new mum friends, many of which I see on a weekly basis 5 years on.

But what about my friends of old,my school friends, the gang of girls I went to university with and then gravitated to London with?  I missed them hugely, I didn't see them as often and sometimes, especially when I had to say no to things, because I was still breastfeeding, because I didn't feel ready to leave my babies or because I was tired or strapped for cash, I felt our lives had moved in different ways. But, despite missing a few birthdays, not keeping up on gossip and feeling a little like I was missing out on their child free fun, we are still going strong.

'Na your pikin be dis?' (pidgin English for 'Is this your child?')

I was walking through Abuja airport, sweating under the weight of baby bag and my 9 month old on the hip seat carrier around my waist.

It was my first visit back to Nigeria to see my mum since I had a child and, although exhausted, I was bubbly with anticipation.  I was also aware of stares from passing strangers, eyes snapping wide at dark-skinned me and my baby with his pale skin, slanted eyes and jet black hair. An airport official marched over.

Your 2 year old still sleeps with you ..... are you mad?

When I tell my friends my 2 year old still sleeps with me, they roll their eyes!  Comments like ‘isn’t he in a bed yet’, ‘how the heck do you cope with that’, ‘how are you ever having a relationship’ are common and yet for me sleeping with Master M. feels totally normal.

I am not what you would call a continuum concept mum.  Don't get me wrong, I so admire those who can have baby attached to them 24hrs a day, with baby on board in sling, and who fly in the face of us buggy pushers.  Whilst I will freely admit I am no where close to going as far as many attachment parents, I do love cuddles and felt really strongly about wanting my baby with me at night.

I guess I am proof that co-sleeping isn't exclusively attached to some kind of  'eco parenting style' like many people still believe it to be.  I didn't breast feed (those of you who have read my bio will know why), I used a sling but not all the time.  Surely therefore I can’t possibly be a fan of co-sleeping can I ……?

Parenting it's a juggling act .....

..... it's easy to get lost sometimes, in the frustrating things, like being overtired, not having time to go to the gym or the toilet, not being allowed to hold a proper conversation, but what's the bigger picture? What do we gain? Lazy Daisy is a really positive space, which to me seems like a great foundation for the life changing journey that is parenthood. So this week I asked fellow parents if parenthood gave them a greater sense of purpose in life.

Here are ten of the life enhancing changes children made in our lives, do you agree?

My youngest turns 3 next week ....

Jed's developing into a solid lad with actual knuckles instead of dimples and the ghost of a jawline emerging through the cheek fat.  But he's still my baby.

Jed and his older brother, Ezra, are three years and two weeks apart. Thinking back now to how I treated Ezra when I was heavily pregnant, I get choked up. I was so focused on my bump and then my newborn, expecting Ezra to be a big boy - essentially to 'man up'. The realisation that he was as little as Jed is now makes me want to reach back through the years and cuddle his tiny frame.

'When you're holding a newborn, suddenly your older child looks like a giant!' says Fenella, mum of two.

But your Gulliver is still a Lilliputian and needs extra TLC as you both enter strange territory.