Can anyone please help me with a crochet pattern?

[MossyBottom]

I taught myself to crochet a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it but it triggered some hand and wrist problems so I gave up. Recently started again while I was quite ill and I'm limiting myself to short sessions. So far so good.
All I did before was learn stitches , made a few scarves and granny squares.
Someone gave me a little kit to make a tiny giraffe and I'm struggling with the pattern.
I ttried to practice with a bigger hook and yarn.
Everything I've done before has had a slip stitch join at the end of the starting chain or first round if a magic circle and this one doesn't.
So I can hardly tell where one round begins and ends. I've tried a stitch marker but not absolutely sure where it's supposed to go.

TBH I'd like to give up but I feel it would be nice to show the finished product to the person who gave me it.

Amigurumi (which is what this toy is) is usually done in a continuous spiral with no join at the end of a round. This is so you can't see a line of joins up the side of the toy.

I put my stitch marker in the top of the first stitch of each round. When I start a new round, I do one stitch and then move the stitch marker to the top of that stitch. In the phot it's the pink one. The white stitch marker is just hiding the loop from the last stitch.

I do a lot of counting too so I know if I've made a mistake if I've done the enquired number and not finished just before the stitch marker.

The white one is holding the loop. It's not hiding anything 😂

Thank you @SoupDragon. I'll try that. Concentration required! 6th

good luck and please try to keep going even though you may well feel like throwing something out of the window!
I think the important thing is to get a mental picture of how its supposed to work for you so that you know when you have reached "where you started on a row or a circuit". Once you work out what its all about with marking places and it fits into place, you'll realise that we more than not completely overcomplicate things and it gets very frustrating!
You've done really well to get started again. It doesn't matter how long it takes - how many times you have to put the damn thing down and leave it. When you come back to it [most times] - its cleared in your head about what to do.
every best wish - stay well - healthy - and smiling!

if you look at the photo of the giraffe's head - you are increasing in every alternate stitch all the way round...
[Mark where you began the row and at the end of the row - mark again, and repeat on every row]
then at the halfway point you increase in every stitch
after that you decrease in alternate stitches all the way round for several rows until its time to tie off

sorry its sequential increases between normal Double crochet stitches and then middle
then its sequential decreases of exactly the same pattern spacing as your increases until you reach 6 stitches again and thread through to tie off.

Just done a round following soup dragon's guidance and it worked!
I have the correct number of stitches and can see what I'm supposed to be doing. It's so tiny it looks easy but it's not, I definitely hadn't realised the importance of counting and marking places. I think I need a mental pattern of counting, so another way of thinking dc2, dc2 into next stitch 6 times IYSWIM.

Use stitch markers (I mark both my first and last stitch) and if using a dark wool, until I get going, I have marked more stitches to help me see where I am going.

Good luck.

Glad you seem to have cracked it (so far!)

Concentration is key! :)