No worries Pinky & you can use mine if they help

Do you work outside the home? At home? I work part-time. I work Sat & Mondays outside the home as well as Wed nights. So Monday's Matilda goes to family day care. I do some work from home during naptime, as well as doing moderating for BellyBelly. Matilda goes to family day care twice a week. Mondays are longer days and Wed are short ones. When she is there, the basic rhythm of the day is the same as home. And because there are only 4 children there it can be done to suit what is happening with each child.

Do you encourage a daily rhythm for your baby or toddler? How / what? I do encourage it, once Matilda hit 4 months I realised I needed a rhythm more for myself and so Matilda knew what was happening next. So before she was walking our general rhythm was feed/play/sleep but it was very flexible depending on the day and how she was going or I was going. As she started getting bigger they were more defined. So once she started walking she went to 2 sleeps a day and once she did that I started giving her signs that it was sleep time, I would turn everything off in the house & sit down with her and read a story have a cuddle and then wander into her room just getting her prepared for sleep as she wasn't a keen sleeper. I also would know the general time, and work around that. So if we were going out & about I would try to do it inbetween naps. Because Matilda fought sleep so much, I didn't even try to get her to sleep away from home, & if she did sleep it was always an added bonus (the 2 times it did happen) If I had something I wanted to do, and it didn't work with sleep times I didn't worry too much because I guess I decided early on that there were times in life when everything doesn't work according to plan

Do you have any specific routines - ie mealtime/ bath time/ bedtime rituals that are special to your family? Helpful to encourage transitions. This we have always done. We have had a saying for ages in our house its dinner/bath/bottle/bed.... basically its all the dinner going ons, then a bath with daddy (always with daddy), then she's handed to me for a massage & getting dressed for bed. Next, Matilda comes out for family time. The TV's off, I stop cooking dinner and we all play or just sit on the floor & watch Matilda play, we then have a cool off time in her room where we start her sleep cd and read a book, bottle in the room with lights off & then to bed. Everynight is the same but 1-2 if we are at friends houses, but even if we go to friends houses we do up to family playtime and then have a play there & still do the quiet time & bottle/bed wherever she is going to sleep. This way she knows whats happening next & generally gets to sleep much easier. If we leave something out, we hear about it