I have long resisted a strict routine with my children as I believe that following babies lead is important to build trust, a good breastfeeding outcome and to learn to understand your baby. We have followed Felix's lead for the last 3 years with much success. So when Felix started to really have "issues" over the last month- I listened, I reasoned but to no avail. Felix issue= one or more of the following: waking up sad, negative, difficulties moving from one activity to the next, being frustrated and not giving things a go and extreme emotional outbursts. Michael and I started to ask ourselves- why is our wonderful boy so frustrated? Upon chatting with a really special friend this week, I described Felix's attitudes, emotional outbursts and issues. It is wonderful to talk to other parent's with children older than yours. My friend smiled and said "I have the female version of Felix, and she is 3 years older!".
So armed with some fantastic suggestions, Felix and I spent Wednesday afternoon creating his poster! We created a pictorial morning and evening flow. The basic things we generally get done every morning and evening such as brush our teeth, have a feed and get dressed. He loves it! Whenever he starts to get frustrated I remind him to check his poster to see what is next! He is playing well, communicating well, loves going to bed and wakes up with a smile on his face. Now I just need to work out how to stop him sitting on his sister like a horse ..
