Don't miss...
	Thanksgiving
	St Andrew's Day
	Advent
	Hanukkah
	Christmas
	Kwanzaa
	Winter
	Shidonni

Dislaimer
AV Baby content is for information only. If you are at all worried about your baby, please seek the advice of your midwife, doctor or paediatrician.

Diary Of A New Mum - Week 8

Time For A Routine

This week I hunted around for my copy of Gina Ford’s baby book. Paul hid it around week three, as I was using it to beat myself up with (not literally), and he said it was a load of rubbish anyway. 

I’m not so sure. Now I can actually think straight again, I’m starting to remember being quite taken with the idea of a routine in those halcyon days when I was pregnant and had nothing to do other than sit around and read baby books. Not that I’m promoting Gina Ford – far from it. (I think the ethics of having a membership-only website based on her books is dubious at best. Desperate parents will pay anything to get their hands on information that helps. There’s no need to exploit this.) 

But there was something in her book that struck a chord with me. It was the bit about how babies need to have expectations created and then met. This gives them a strong sense of security. If they are always put down for a nap at a certain time, for example, they will eventually start to expect this to happen. Then, when it does happen, they get a sense of confidence in being able to predict things in their own little world.  

Not wanting to deprive my daughter of this important aspect of her development, I have decided to start gently nudging her into a routine – and the routine I’ve chosen happens to be one recommended by Gina Ford. There are lots of others, and I’m sure they’re all great, but I haven’t got their books so this one it is. It won’t be easy – Jessica-Ann seems to prefer sleeping for about 10 minutes every hour, and feeding every three hours, but I’m willing to give it a try. 

It’s going to go like this: get Jess up at 7.00am, even if she’s fast asleep and only fed a few hours ago; feed her; take her up to her cot for a nap at 8.45am, even if she doesn’t seem tired; Jess sleeps until 10.00am, then gets up and feeds again at 10.30am. Back up for a long nap at 12.00am until 2.00pm; feed again at 2.30pm; short nap at 4.15pm (this seems to be the only time of day I’ll be allowed to go out as she can have this sleep in her pram); bath at 5.45pm; feed at 6.00pm; bed at 7.00pm. A quick feed at 10.30pm will see her through until 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning. 

Sounds great, doesn’t it? It also sounds highly unlikely! She’s never, ever slept between 7 and 10 in the evening – probably because she had colic so badly in the early days. But I’m nothing if not persistent. I’m also quite anti-social, and I have to confess that the idea of not being able to go out for a few weeks rather appeals to me. 

Wish me luck! 

Diary of A New Mum - Week 9

Back to Diary Of A New Mum

Back to AV Baby home

A Small Publishing Website    Contact Us    Sudoku for Kids   Privacy Policy

These pages are property of Activity Village and are for personal, classroom and library use only