help with routine needed...

[dee dee]

My dd is almost 7 months old and is having four bottles and three solid meals a day. DD has never been an overly hungry baby or one to demand her feeds, and trying to feed her any sooner than 4 hourly is a waste of food and energy.
My dilemma is this, we still don't have any kind of routine with feeds and I am struggling a bit to fit it in. The problem is dd still sleeps a lot and gets very grumpy without her naps, but sometimes nap time coincides with feed time what then??
Eg today dd woke from her second nap at 9am and wasn't "due" to eat again until 11.30. Needless to say by meal time she was crying and not interested in her food. She managed to eat a few spoons of veggies and half a bottle before I had to put her to bed as she was getting so upset.
Any help or suggestions of routine would be great thanks,
dee dee

[drewid]

Hi :)

My bub is 7 months old and is having 3 solid meals a day and 4 breastfeeds.

Very roughly, his breastfeeds are at 6,10,2, and 6. But having said that, it all depends on his sleep! Lately he has been getting up at 5, so I have been feeding him then and so then the feeds change to 5, 9, 1 and 5. But then his day time sleeps are different cos he is more tired from getting up earlier....so its all out of whack this week!

Basically I am just taking it on his cues this week. I feed him when he wakes up in the morning and he is back in bed around 2 hours later. He generally sleeps for 1.5hrs and when he wakes up, I give him his solid brekky. Our pattern for today has been, and will probably be...

5am breastfeed
5.30 - 7.30 sleep
8.00 solid brekky
8.30 breastfeed
9.30 - 11.00 sleep
12.00 solid lunch
12.30 breastfeed
1.00 - 2.30 sleep (still asleep but know he'll be awake shortly)
4.00 solid dinner
4.30 breastfeed
5.00 - 5.30 nap
6.00 bath, top up feed, bed by 6.30.

i think he is going through a period of adjusting his old cycle, so I am trying to keep it all flexible. The getting up at 5am is exhausting me, so I hope he learns to sleep in again soon!

With regards to your bubbas nap and meal times overlapping, if your bub wants to sleep, let her! Feed her when she wakes up if she slept through her feed, and then adjust your timings accordingly. Bubs generally won't sleep if they are hungry!

I used to find that if Andrew was getting narky about half an hour or 45mins before his next feed i would put him back to bed and quite often he would have a short nap before feed time. He would wake up right on time for that feed. The nap seemed to take the edge of it and he was quite happy for hours afterwards.

Good luck with working out your new plan of attack - its all a big learning curve and heaps of fun! :D

[Belby]

Hi, not sure if this will help but this is our routine (bub is 6 month old)

7.30 / 8.00 wake up
say hello, little play, get up, nappy change
8.00/8.30 bottle
hour later solids
play
11.00am approx - sleep
12.30 approx - wake up
bottle
play
3.00pm approx - sleep
4.30/5.00 approx - wake up
bottle
approx hour later solids
play/dad time/bath
7.30 approx - last bottle
8.00 approx - bed - sleep all night

This is pretty standard and only seems to vary a bit if bubs wakes up earlier in the morning eg 6-6.30am - then everything is brought forward and hour or two.
He is only having 2 solid feeds at the moment, but shortly Iwill introduce another about an hour after 12.30ish bottle. He seemed to set this routine himself.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Belinda

[Harmony83]

This is 'very very roughly' our routine for a 6 month old...

6.30am bottle
8.30am solids
9.00am sleep
10.30am bottle
12.30pm solids
1.00pm sleep
2.30pm bottle
3.30/4.00pm sleep
5.00pm solids
7.30pm bath, bottle, bed

He also sleeps through lunch alot of the time and because its to close to dinner he misses out or I just give him a toast finger or small snack... He also gets cranky without his sleeps, so we make that our first priority (there is no point trying to feed a cranky baby as you know, it just doesn't work!!!) And as the CHN told me sleep is sometimes more important to young babies than food-besides if they are hungry they will let you know!!! Goodluck with it, its so confusing isn't it!!! :o I'll be checking all the advice you get as well!!!

[pebilz]

Hi Dee Dee

My DD is 6.5 months and this is her routine. She is also on 4 bottles and 3 solids.

6:00 wakes
7:00 bottle 150mls
7:45 to bed
8:30 wakes
9:00 fruit & baby porride
9:30 bath
10:30/11:00 bottle 200mls
12:00 to bed
1:00 wakes
1:30 apple & avocado
3:00 bottle 200mls
4:00 to bed
5:00 wakes
5:00 vegies
7:00 bottle
7:30 to bed

I say to bed because she won't necessarily fall asleep straight away. I've pretty much had her in the bottle feeds at those times since about 3 months and have never strayed. I know sleep is important and her day time naps have been a nightmare but I have now ditched the dummy and put her down at the same time for naps every day to maintain the routine. If we are out and about though she will tend to sleep at those same times in the car and pram as well. It can also take anywhere from 3 minutes to 30 for her to fall asleep!!! I will however wake her by 9, 1:30, and 5 no matter how much sleep she has had for consistency. She may be a bit grumpy but I think it works better. Babies love routine and structure I've been told.

[dee dee]

Thanks for the replies, its great to see what others are doing. Hopefully things will settle down and we can get a nice little routine happening.

dee dee