7 mos old routine - please review

[cbg]

Hi,
You know sometimes when you are in the thick of it, you can't see the forest through the trees?  I'm hoping that some of you can offer some suggestions b/c our feeding routine still isn't quite working.  My ds has had a cold on and off for the past 4 weeks, had 2 new teeth in, started sleeping on his tummy (and gets stuck sometimes!!), started solids and has dropped the evening catnap.  No kidding things are wonky!!!  But still - any suggestions would be GREAT!!

5am - wakes hungry - 4- 6oz bottle and back to bed ***THIS IS NEW(we haven't had to do a nighttime bottle since he was 2.5 months!!).  Back to bed.
7am - wake up - doesn't want a bottle (even before he started the 5am bottle)
8am - solids (cereal and fruit) - still not hungry, barely eats
930 - 11 - nap
1130 - solids
1230 - bottle 4 - 6 oz
130 - 3 nap
430 - solids
600 - bottle 6 oz
645ish - bed
10pm - dreamfeed 6oz

Hope for the best until the morning!

He is usually a happy, content little guy, but is now fussy A LOT, especially between 430 and 645 (but of course won't nap at that time any more, even though I offer it).

Please, someone poke some holes in my routine!!

Thanks!

[marilyn73]

Hi there,
I'm still "new and learning the ropes" - but I do have a 7 month old dd, and we're on a very steady solids/breastfeed routine, and one thing that I notice that is different, is that we have an extra breastfeed in the day, so I'm wondering if somehow your little guy is making up the calories at 5am?  I went through an EW phase when we were dropping the 3 am feed a month ago, and the result would be a feed at 5:30 or 6, then back to bed, then not hungry at the normal 7:30 wakeup.
The other thing that helped as we were getting the solids going was waiting a bit longer for breakfast in hopes that dd would be hungrier - it's a fine balance though - cause she doesn't eat well when tired.  Now we're at 45 minutes between breast and solids, but I was waiting a good hour or more when we were starting out.

Anyway, here's a good day for us:
7:30 wake up and breastfeed
8:15 solids - cereal and fruit
10:00-11:45 - nap
12:00 breastfeed
1:00 solids - cereal and veggies/fruit
2:30 - 4:00 nap
4:30 - breast feed
5:30 - solids - cereal and veggies/fruit
6:00 bath
6:45 breastfeed
7:00 bedtime
9:30 dreamfeed (we're in the weaning process - was at 10:45 before)

So I basically breastfeed first thing in the am, after both naps, and before bed.   Also, the breastfeed - solids - breastfeed at the end of the day packs in a lot of calories to tide dd through the night.  My good friend who's bottlefeeding with formula has a 6.5 month old ds on the same feeding routine.
I'm not sure when the point is that you take a breast/bottle feed away though, or when to switch to breastfeed after meals instead of before - keep meaning to ask this question, but since the above is working I haven't bothered yet! 
I'm no expert - and usually don't give opinions or advice here - but your post caught my eye since I'm wondering what other 7 month olds do
Marilyn

[cbg]

Hi Marilyn,
Thank you - that was exactly what I needed!!  I dropped the 11am bottle in hopes that ds would be hungry enough for solids.  Now that he's at least used to solids, maybe a better approach would be to continue with the 4 bottles and 3 solids during the day, and then start the df weaning instead. 

You would think that this would be easier with the second child!!!  My first dd did the routine that you are on for quite some time.  I remember dropping the 11am feed first and I replaced it with a snack when she was able to eat finger food.  I then moved the next feed to before afternoon nap.  I did morning and night bottles for a long time....probably longer than most, but it was just sooo nice!

Thanks again - will see if this works.
CBG

[marilyn73]

Hi CBG,
Just thought of something else - that dinner hour fussing...
I find that happiness in the dinnertime hour - bedtime completely hinges on the timing of the second nap.  We've been getting it later lately which has helped tremendously.  If dd has nap #2 2:30-4:00/4:30, lasting to the end of the day without the catnap is a piece of cake.  Recently nap #1 has been at 10:00, which really is what makes this possible though, and only lately has that worked with dd's later wake-up.
Marilyn

[ryates71]

Hi CBG,

I have a 6.5mo and just getting going on solids.  Could your EW be due to the long A time after the pm nap?  I read somewhere that you should really have an A time of 3 hours before losing the 3rd nap.  So perhaps you could stretch out the earlier A times so that your last nap is later, or try bringing bed time earlier for a couple of weeks. 

We've still got the catnap at the moment - I can't wait for him to drop it but everytime we've tried without it's always led to a disasterous night.

Rachel

[cbg]

Hi Marilyn and Rachel,
Thanks again for the tips!  I have brought back in the 11am bottle (which he gobbles up) and have extended his A time in the morning until closer to 10am.  Totally makes a difference with the evening (although his afternoon nap is a bit out of whack with his sister's now!!) 

He is doing much better with solids, and I've started giving him some finger food which he is crazy about.  Unfortunately he's still waking early and taking a full feed, but he's also just coming off of yet another illness so I can't bootcamp yet   Once he's healthy, I'll post again to see if this does the trick.

Thanks both!
CBG

[marilyn73]

Hi Rachel,
We dropped the cat nap at almost 6.5 months, and haven't had one in the last month - but our A times are definitely not 3 hours - usually 2 1/2, sometimes 2 3/4 hours.  But the this only works if the naps are long enough.  2 naps of only an hour, would leave a 3-4 hour A at the end - disastrous - and this is what was keeping the catnap around for the last few weeks we had it.  Somehow the naps lengthened on their own when we finally dropped the 3am feed.
Good luck with your next transition,
Marilyn

[cbg]

Hi,

Slowly getting sorted, but EW has become NW!!  For the last couple of nights he has been waking frequently.  Usually I go in, make sure he has his paci (sometimes he does, other times not).  We'll keep doing this every 1 - 2 hours until I feed him.

Last night we did the dreamfeed at about 10:20pm.  He woke at 130, then again at 230.  I decided to try feeding him.  I gave him 4oz and he gobbled it up.  He's just waking now (7am).  I haven't had to feed him in the night since he was 2.5 mos.  I would think growth spurt, but this has been going on for about 4 - 5 weeks now.  How can I fix this??  I'm trying to feed him a lot during the day, but he won't take more than 4 - 6 oz per bottle, and I'm already doing solids 3x. 

Thanks!!

[*jazzberry*]

Hi - I'm no expert either but I think at 7 months they recommend milk feeds before solids rather than the other way round? Just wondering if your lo would take more of a bottle if you offered it before he has his solids. I've had loads of nw troubles with my boy too - have finally sorted it (fingers crossed..) but it took about a week of being pretty firm at night (ie no feeds) before he upped his intake during the day. Anyway, hope this helps x

[cbg]

Hi!

Totally agree and we actually moved back to the following routine last week (target routine...not always actual!!):

7am wake and bottle
8am bft
10am nap
1130 wake and bottle
1230 lunch
230 nap
4pm wake and bottle
530 dinner
645 bottle
7pm bed
1030 df

He barely ate all day today...really hoping he's not sick again!!  So done with the middle of the night wake ups!!  So maybe with all the illness/changes, etc. he has just gotten used to feeding at night?  When I know he is 100% healthy again, maybe I just have to prepare for a few long nights of no feeding?  Ugghh....dreading it already! 

[marilyn73]

Hi Rachel,
Just thought of something else from an earlier post - when you mentioned making sure he had his paci, sometimes yes, sometimes no - do you give it to him if he doesn't have it?
We had a seriously paci addicted baby, at 5 months old, who couldn't put it back in when lost - had us replacing it with increasing frequency until it reached a peak of nearly hourly one night! So we quit cold turkey the next day, and she learned to suck her thumb at the first nap after 55 min crying.  Now she falls asleep quickly and finds her thumb immediately.  But it actually wasn't too bad a process, and ironically, it was naps and to fall asleep at bedtime that were the challenges, the NW were few. 
As for dropping the night feed, yes the nights are long, but so worthwhile in the end,
good luck,
marilyn