Babies: the joy, heartbreak and cuteness of a baby's first year

LAST year we introduced you to Generation Alpha, 100 beautiful babies born in 100 days. Now our cheeky little boys and girls are celebrating their first birthdays.

LAST year we introduced you to Generation Alpha, 100 beautiful babies born in 100 days. Now our cheeky little boys and girls are celebrating their first birthdays, and we’re thrilled to bring you this collection of photographs and interviews with their exhausted parents about everything from teething to tantrums.

Jessica Merlino

Jessica Merlino

Mother Raylene Merlino: Jessica is very energetic, loud and full of life and she’s a bit of a trouble maker. The worst bit is having three kids and getting them all into routine. She is killing me to tell you the truth. People say the third one is no trouble, but co-ordinating them all with school, day care and work is hard. I work from home as an administration assistant and have worked right through. I try to do it while Jessica naps. My advice is enjoy every second — and the bad times always pass.

22 May 2013

Tiffany Hall

Tiffany Hall

Mother Stacey Crane: She is very cheeky and bubbly and talks a lot and entertains herself. The highlight was her first smile and then her first giggle at five months. It melted my heart. She has been a great baby from day, 90 per cent of the time she is great but every now and then she’ll scream the house down with the teething and all I can do is try to distract her from the pain. Babies don’t come with a manual, you just have to follow your instincts you’ll know what’s best for your baby.

21 May 2013

Nadia Hossani

Nadia Hossani

Father Hamid Ullah Hossani: Nadia is a very, very happy and a very nice girl. The best part for me is when I come home from work and in my language (Dari -Afghan) she says Daddy, that the best part and makes me very happy. For us there has been no worst part, there has been nothing bad and we will try for another baby soon, in a month or two.

22 May 2013

Tanisha Sharma

Tanisha Sharma

Mother Ginia Gomez: I can’t explain motherhood apart from it’s an excellent gift from God. Tanisha is really very cute and loves music very much and loves to play all the time and she is a very happy baby. Spending time with her is great. The sleep deprivation has been very hard. My advice: Spend as much time as you can with the baby because they grow very quickly.

22 May 2013

Ilias Thapa

Ilias Thapa

Mother Batoul Khayat: Ilias is just so bubbly. He is the exact opposite to his brother, he smiles for everyone and where his brother was a bit standoff-ish, he just jumps straight in, so Ilias is an extrovert. I got mastitis for the first six weeks. It was very, very painful. The first (baby) is the one that changes your life, turns everything upside down so once you have the second it just adds to your existing family life and it’s an absolute pleasure. We don’t have much time for each other but we’re going to start having date night every fortnight when my mum comes over.

22 May 2013

Patrick Raschke

Patrick Raschke

Mother Sandra Lucero Villegas: Patrick is very bubbly and smiley, he loves exploring and he is always looking for a cuddle. Now that he is crawling and interacts more and plays with you it is much better because there is feedback in the relationship. He was really sick with bronchiolitis a few months back and we ended up in ER, it broke my heart because he was so sick and coughing badly and you’re helpless really. You can read all about it being a mum but you don’t really know until you live it, you can’t read about it in a book

25 May 2013