So Cheryl's Baby Is Sleeping Through The Night, Eh?

If you're a new mum, you probably couldn't help but tune into the 'news' that Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole's baby boy is already sleeping through the night.

I know, I know. We're not supposed to care about celebrity parenthood because it's a million miles away from the reality of being a new mum without an army of nannies and an entourage of staff to help.

But I couldn't help but pay attention to this nugget of news, because it reminded me of how wound up I used to get at hearing that anyone else's baby was sleeping through the night.

Hello magazine reports:

Liam Payne as revealed that he and his girlfriend Cheryl are managing to bag seven hours of sleep a night, as their son Bear, 11 weeks old, already has a sleeping pattern. Speaking on Tuesday on the red carpet, Liam praised his girlfriend, saying: "[Cheryl's] got him in a sleeping pattern already, we're getting seven hours of sleep a night. Everyone's saying have you not slept much and I don't want to say because I'm out partying."

Well done Cheryl, I'm glad you're getting some kip. But I think there should be some kind of law against parents whose babies sleep through the night talking about it in public. Nothing else can make a sleep-challenged mum feel quite so as inadequate as the news that someone else is cracking what you are clearly suffering through.

But here's the thing. I am firm believer in the fact that some babies are just good sleepers, and would settle into that kind of pattern no matter what you did or didn't do to encourage that.

All that credit parents take for having 'taught' their baby to sleep through the night. I don't buy it. My third baby was the best sleeper imaginable but by then I realised you're either born a good sleeper or you're not, so I stopped deluding myself that our uninterrupted stretches of lovely sleep were anything I could claim credit for.

So, mum whose baby does not yet sleep through the night, take heart. It's probably not you and nothing you're doing wrong. You just got one that didn't get the memo about sleeping through the night.

It's ok though. He or she will get there in their own sweet time. And then you can make like Liam and enjoy gloating to other parents about your brilliant sleeper.

And if all else fails? Fib. No-one will ever know, as long as you don't let them see the stash of matchsticks you carry around to keep your eyes propped open!