Over the six years, I have been a parent the one thing I have relied on is the bedtime routine. Luckily my kids so far have been the type to still sleep well even if they are out of their usual routine. However, every night I put my kids to bed reminds me how beneficial it is to set up consistency at bedtime from the start. Jamie's Routine When Jamie was a baby all the books I read mentioned some sort of a bedtime routine. There are some parents who would rather not have any routines and allow the family dynamic to be child-led as much as possible and that's ok too, if it works for your family don't change it. At the start, the routine was bath time, breastfeeding while reading a story and then he would fall asleep on the breast and I would gently place him into the bedside crib until the next feed was due. As he got older and moved into his own room and onto formula the plan was to give him the bottle, read the story and then learn to self settle. This didn't happen.

 In Northern Ireland we are currently at the end of the Christmas break, my son was due to go back to p2 tomorrow (today was a development day). The schools are now closed for at least a week for all pupils except for vulnerable children and the children of key workers. Everyone is having to do online learning.  It's ok for me as I'm on maternity and so I don't need to worry about home educating while trying to get on with my own work. But not all parents have this luxury time to put in to their children's education and I really sympathise. Daily Routine At the moment the daily routine focuses on Rosie but while Jamie was in school it was all about getting him there on time. 6:00am- wake up to Rosie shouting at us from her cot (she is still in our room). We usually bring her into our bad and let her play with some toys between us while we take turns in dozing. 7.00am- Jamie wakes up and comes into our room. Some mornings it is sooner, it just depends on how loud Rosie i