‘Not really,’ Alice said. ‘She goes down for a while but then she’s awake all night.’

‘All night?’

‘Pretty much. It’s like we’re in a movie. That’s what I say to my friends – we have the kid that you hear the nightmares about. I can’t believe it when I’m out at 2 a.m., driving her around’ – Alice shook her head – ‘it’s crazy.’

‘Have you tried letting her cry it out?’ the doctor asked.

‘We did. But she just cried. After an hour we – well, me mainly – couldn’t take it.’

‘Does she sleep during the day?’

‘Yes. I had to wake her up to bring her here. It’s really frustrating!’

The doctor nodded. ‘I went through the same,’ she said. ‘I have three, and the last one was allergic to sleep. At night, anyway. She was like a vampire – up all night and dead to the world all day.’

‘How did you cope?’

‘She eventually grew out of it. But not entirely. She’s sixteen now and she’s still a night owl. Children are who they are. You have to work with them.’

‘So we wait? It’s been a while. Some of the other mums I’ve met have babies who slept through the night from day one, which I can’t even imagine, but even the ones whose babies didn’t sleep well at first are through it now.’

‘Don’t compare yourself to other parents, if you can help it,’ Doctor Quinn said. ‘As I said, children have to find their own path, even at this age.’

‘So there’s nothing we can do? You don’t think there’s a problem?’

‘Not a serious one,’ the doctor said. ‘There could be something. Colic, maybe. An immature gut that causes her pain when digesting food.’

‘Someone suggested lactose intolerance?’ Alice said.

‘I don’t think so,’ Doctor Quinn replied. She consulted her notes once more. ‘Her weight gain is normal. But we could check.’

‘If it is colic, or an immature gut, what would we do about it?’

‘There’s not a lot you can do. It’s her digestive system developing. It can cause discomfort.’

‘And will it just get better?’

‘Normally it does.’ She reached for some plastic gloves and snapped them on, then adjusted her face shield. ‘But I’ll examine her.’

Doctor Quinn placed her right hand on the baby’s pale abdomen and gently palpated it with her fingers. She moved her hand around, her face fixed in concentration.

‘I don’t feel anything abnormal,’ she said. ‘And Joanna doesn’t seem to be experiencing any discomfort when I press on her stomach. She has normal movements?’

‘What’s normal?’ Alice said.

‘Same as for you, more or less. Not explosive, or persistent diarrhoea.’

Alice paused. Joanna’s nappies were hardly things of beauty, but she didn’t think they were anything to worry about, at least given what the doctor was saying.