aghh cant decide whether to start a daytime routine or not?

[feekerry]

Dd is 8 months. In 4 weeks i go back to work 4 days a week. My mum.is kindly doing majority of childcare when i go back and dd will spend few hours in nursery too.
We have never had a routine at all and its worked really well in that dd sleeps 12 hours at night generally and very happy baby.
I let her nap on boob, cuddled up to me, in pram or car. Never had set nap times and she doesn't sleep much in day. Maybe 3 x 20 min naps or 2x 30 naps. Sometimes she falls asleep hour after waking, sometimes 4 hours after. We just go with whatever really.
I am worried that i should be trying to put some routine in place for when i am back at work. Mainly so i can tell my mum etc that dd will.need a nap around x time etc. Basically i don't want to come home to a tired baby who is grumpy.also think it will be better for my mum and dd if a loose routine was in place. Aghh don't know where to start

Sorry not getting my point across very well! What i mean is its okay for me just to go with the flow as dd is my baby and and i know what works and what doesn't. I'm just worried that without some kind of routine dd won't end up sleeping at all in the day or not properly and I'll come home to an over tired baby

I don't think there's any point in you getting her into a routine, since it won't be your routine she's following once you're at work. How about doing several mock 'work days' starting now, where your DD spends the day with your mum (or however long you'd be at work) or part thereof which you gradually increase? My DS has also never been in any routine (not for lack of trying on my part - he's just an anti-routine baby!) so we've started him at nursery already, doing a very gradual build up of time there so that I will be confident when I go back full-time in February that they know exactly how to get enough food and sleep into him. He's a non-sleeping bottle-refuser so I was very concerned on both counts but the really long lead-in has been invaluable.

I wouldn't worry about it to be honest. Though I would second the idea of doing a couple of practice days.

dd is 8 months and never had a strict routine, during the week she is looked after for 2 days a week by me 2 days by dp and 1 day by my dm and has a developed differant napping habits for all three of us. The only thing that stays consistant is meal times but that is at her insistance not ours :)

I think doing a couple of 'practice run' days is an ace idea.

Yours and your mum's idea of routines may vary a lot - you need to discuss this with her too. She might think it's a good idea to have a routine!