The Instruction Manual for Elimena

I love routine. So much so that I have often wondered if I have genes from a third parent – like a clock, drill sergent or an Excel spreadsheet!

To make things easier for mum & dad, a description of my preferred routine should have been delivered with me at birth…..but where is the fun in that?

Basically I wake up around 7am. Then for the rest of the day, I continuously follow the following routine:

• Feed for an hour
• Play for an hour
• Sleep for an hour

FEED: I like to take my time while feeding. Usually I feed for an hour or until mum stops me (this includes a midway nappy change). One night she left me to see how long I would go for – and I fed for two and a half hours until mum ran out of milk. Then the olds had to use a dummy to sooth me – as I could have kept snacking. Really I could – after all I do have dad’s genes!

PLAY: Then we play for an hour. This involves a combination of you entertaining me, tummy time, sitting on my bouncer etc. Sometimes I feel like the aim of this is to wear me out so that you can have a break while I sleep….but I am sure that is not true?

SLEEP: When I start to show signs of being tired (yawning, jerky movements, staring at fixed points etc), you wrap me, give me a quiet snuggle to help me wind down and then put me down in my cot for a sleep. This hour however is not all sleep! It includes wrapping time, settling time and “I don’t want to sleep yet” time.

Then the Feed, Play, Sleep routine starts all over again.

Until you reach my last feed of the day. At which time – I feed, then you cuddle me for 15 minutes and then I go off to that happy warm cozy dream land (all going well!).

I’m pretty easy to predict usually, if you follow the above “Feed, Play, Sleep” routine. It is when I get out of this routine…that I become a little more precious (mum describes it as being a terror though I think that is a little harsh) .
BUT you guys know me best of all, I’m the perfect angel…you wouldn’t believe those “terror stories” that mum and dad like to tell, would you?