Throughout the past 2 - 3 months, I have consistently subjected my baby Clarisse to a pretty structured daily routine. It is a way to organise and structure for the day. To know what’s coming next every passing hour for both me and the baby.

I never realised how adapted Clarisse is to her daily routine until this evening. We had dinner at a restaurant and the time was roughly an hour past her usual evening bath time. She cried all the way home. The moment we reached home, she stopped crying. When I took her clothes off in the room and put her in the bath robe, she grinned in anticipation for her “play-water” time. Clearly, she is crying for her evening bath-time.

She is now 6 months at the time of writing and here’s how her daily routine looks like on any normal day …

Morning routine

Clarisse would wake up roughly the same time, between 7 am to 8 am, and the first thing is off to the potty for her morning poo poo. After cleaning up, Clarisse will immediately demand her morning session breast feeding. She would either doze off for a really short nap, not more than 30 mins, or pester her still-sleepy-mommy for playtime.

At 10am, it’s bath time for Clarisse. It’s her favourite time of the day naturally. She loves the water so much I have to drag her out of the bathtub, crying. For the next 5 minutes, she turns into one cranky baby while I’m busy powdering and putting her clothes on.

By the time Clarisse is fully clothed, she’ll be wanting her morning’s second breast feeding. And Clarisse will end up dozing off into a short 30-minute nap. Barely enough time for me to catch my lunch and prepare rice porridge for Clarisse’s lunch.

Afternoon routine

Clarisse would wake up from her morning nap at about 12pm just in time for lunch. Her rice porridge would be waiting for her. Playtime follows when Clarisse finishes her bowl of porridge.

Her afternoon nap time is usually between 2pm to 3pm and again, she wouldn’t sleep for more than 30 minutes.

Between 3pm and 6pm, I would take Clarisse along with me to town for various activities like running errands, shopping, back to her grandma’s house or hanging out with my friends. Clarisse would sleep in the baby-sling for her evening nap at around 5pm. Again, you’ve guessed it, Clarisse would sleep for not more than 30 minutes most of the time.

Bedtime routine

We would be home before 7pm. After my dinner, I’ll take Clarisse up to her room and get her ready for her evening bath. Clarisse calls it a day not later than 8pm.

So I guess after a couple of months, Clarisse is really getting used to this daily routine. To the point where she’ll fuss over the slightest inconsistencies interrupting her daily pattern.

I’ve been told that structuring a daily routine around babies’ life is a good thing. And that it helps both babies and parents having some sort of predictability in every day life. I’m pretty satisfied with how Clarisse has been able to adapt and follow a routine I’ve eventually came up with after observing her cues and behaviour. I can’t just plot a time-chart and coax my baby into following right down to the very minute. But so far, it’s been going well. We’re not straying too far off the schedule of our daily routines.