Routines to make you go crazy

You have a baby and you receive a lot of advice about raising said baby. Breast is best. Formula feed babies sleep though the night earlier. Vaccinations lead to autism. Not vaccinating leads to outbeaks of long defeated diseases like whooping cough. Feed your baby when you baby demands to be fed. Put your baby on a routine from birth. On and on and on.

It's clear that there is advice out there for everyone and you choose to listen to the help that suits the type of person you are. The bottom line of it all is that the end-result is a happy and healthy baby - except from the crazy ass non-vaccination advice. I am very clearly someone who thrives on a schedule. We have, therefore, attempted to put Rose on a schedule. We have a book by a British child care author Gina Ford. Ford subscribes to a Nazi-like regime about the baby sleeping, feeding and playing times and also when Mum should eat, sleep, and "drink a large glass of water." Obviously there are a lot of people who would throw her in the bin immediately. I, however, am appreciating having my day organized - the stress is coming for Rose having not read the book.

As Rose is a baby she sleeps when she should be awake and is awake when she should sleep. It has made me crazy. But I have taken a deep breath and tried to gain some perspective. On the whole Rose is doing beautifully. She has one stretch of 5 - 6 hours each night. I get up for one feed and Brent does another so we both get a good chunk of sleep. I'll keep working with the routine because to me it makes sense - ensure that day is very different than night, feed when the baby wakes up (our biggest problem I think is that Rose doesn't seem to feed for long enough and need topping up before naps - a bad sleep association), start daily rituals early like bath and massage, make sure the baby isn't awake for too long.

I like the routine, but it leaves me little space to go on any real outings because she just falls asleep. As she gets older I'm sure she'll be able to stay awake for longer. We have visitors for the next three weeks so I am concerned the routine will be difficult to maintain. But she is our daughter and I need to make sure she is the priority and not entertaining guests by guiding them around the sights of Pennsylvania. Be strong Mummy!