Routine

Do you or your family thrive on routine?

I was once told that everyone has a routine,

even if you don't think you do.

Do you have an order or specific way

that you do things in the morning?

Or before bed?

Routine.

I also heard that babies/kids thrive on routine.

Pre-baby I would shudder at the thought. 

To me,

routine equaled structure.

And I like any kind of structure to be loose.

Oh, I don't mind a schedule or an agenda.

An order of meeting

or timeline.

But to me when I think of routine,

I think of structure,

inflexibility and I get all hot and sweaty and

claustrophobic feeling. 

The more structure,

the less room there is for good conversation

and purposefullness.

(I think I just made that last word up!)

My everyday as some routine.

When I wake up,

I take my medication and drink a glass of water.

I have breakfast and play with Claire,

brush my teeth.

Yes, I put my make up on in the same order almost every time.

Before bed I do the same things,

not necessarily in the same order.

All of that is pretty flexible.

With a baby,

I am learning about which

parts of our family's routine are flexible

and which parts are not.

As a baby,

more specifically an infant,

Claire didn't have a specific nap time or bed time.

She slept and ate whenever.

I never wanted to be tied down to a timeline,

so I chose to feed her on demand,

and let her sleep when she was tired.

As she grew,

so did our routine.

She napped around the same time in the morning,

and around the same time in the afternoon.

Going to bed within the same hour each night.

She began to eat on a regular basis, 

meals with snacks in between. 

However,

not that we have entered life 

with a toddler,

routine is much more important.

She really depends on routine.

Not necessarily which activities, 

but more so in the way things are done.

Bed time - routine.

Childcare at church - routine.

Meal times - routine.

Nap times - routine.

If things change, 

its difficult for her to adapt.

In all of that, 

I am learning to adapt.

Making sure I am home

in order for her to nap in her own crib at a certain time.

If she sleeps in her car seat or stroller

I realize its not a great quality sleep

and there will be melt downs later. 

What about you?!

Have you always thrived on routine?

Or changed from routine-oriented to not,

or vise versa,

over time?

Do you like the structure or routine,

or are you more like me where you like some flexibility?

And what happens if you fall out of your routine?