Let's hear it for the sound of silence

I'm not sure you can fully appreciate just how glorious the sound of silence is, until you've endured a baby screaming uncontrollably for half an hour.

I write this having just listened to Daniel do this for the first time. This was no ordinary crying fit, but a deep, guttural and gut wrenching succession of screams, punctuated with occasional, all too brief seconds of respite.

I found myself desperately flicking through the pages of Penelope Leach's Your Baby & Child, looking for a swift and miraculous cure. Could this be colic? Is there something seriously wrong with him? Is my baby about to explode?

And then - just as we were contemplating going for a drive as a last resort - he stopped. Actually he seemed to respond to us turning the main light on, suggesting he got panicked by being put down on his own in the near dark.