Coping Mechanisms : My plans for coping with the craziness of this adventure

Yesterday, Scott was marvelling at Grace's ability to anticipate the claps in The Wiggles' songs. When they begin to experience patterns of behaviour, babies have a powerful ability to anticipate what happens next. This is why baby experts are all such proponents of routines.

As boring as they sound, routines are comforting and helpful both for baby and [insert here Mother, Father, Nanna or any other carer]. Tizzie Hall says in Save Our Sleep, if your baby is in distress your first logical step is the next thing on their routine.

I miss routine. I feel like the last time I had any kind of routine was when I worked at King Gee Clothing Company in West End. When they were taken over by Sara Lee Corporation and we were all moved to Newmarket my job changed, my duties became chaotic and reactive. My stress levels increased a hundredfold. I remember working, hidden away in the back corner of the warehouse, with tears streaming down my cheeks. I was trying to cope with this crazy situation - as was my boss and every other snappy staff member there. This crazy lack of routine has crept into my private life and has been compounded by becoming a mother. My life is chaos. My home is chaos.

As I reflect back on these times, I can see that life changed but I didn't know how to change my routines (and whatever other coping mechanisms I had) to deal with it. So, with that (and Grace's stress levels) in mind,... I am trying to plan a morning and evening routine for our trip that will get the basic housework done and the baby bathed, fed and ready for play time. We are standing at the threshold of huge change and I want to minimise both Grace's and my stress and maximise our enjoyment of our new adventure.

The routine covers things like times for bottles, meals, getting changed out of our PJ's into our play clothes, cleaning teeth, brushing hair, going for an hour long walk in the pram, nap times, bath times, doing the laundry, washing dishes and food preparation. There is a five hour window each day, after Grace's morning nap time and before the night time rituals of baths and dinner, where we'll have a great opportunity to explore new places. I know it sounds like a regimented life,... but motherhood, to some extent, is very regimented. You just have to look after your baby, whether you're in a house at Ferny Hills or in a caravan tripping up and down the eastern seaboard.