when should I bf my 7 month old?

[elsa and jethro's mum]

Hi,
I've been doing a pretty strict EASY up till now, but committed to Bfing till elsa's at least 1 if I possibly can! Im happy to keep the morning and night feeds going as long as possible.
She;s been on solids since 5.5 months, now 7.5 months. up until recently I was bfing her at every meal, then giving her solids. she also had a mid afternoon bf after her afternoon nap and a dream feed of breastmilk.
She was having trouble sleeping through her naps, and I didn't want to introduce more solids (she won't drink well from a cup and i've never tried a bottle) so I switched her bfs around: now I bf her before her morning and afternoon naps (trying to avoid feed to sleep by changing her afterwards I always put her down awake). She seems to be sleeping much better, am I going to end up struggling later on? I know that this far I've made a real point of feeding her as soon as she wakes up then never before her nap: she's really good at resettling herself on the whole, and it seems like maybe she was waking a bit peckish and that full tummy is helping her sleep through the naps again. what do you think?
She is also bfing better/more and also eating her solids better, so generally it seems good but I don't want to make a rod for my own back in future!
let me knwo what you think 
Laura

[Carter'sMama]

Hi there!

I always found that a full tummy helped my little guy sleep better.  That being said I was also concerned about creating a problem by nursing before naps.  I ended up with a schedule that looked something like this:
7:00am - wake-up and bf
8:30am - breakfast
10:00 - nap
11:30 - bf
1:00 - lunch
2-2:30 - nap
3:00ish-3:30pm - bf
4:30 - catnap (some days)
5:30 - dinner
7:45 - bf and bed

The schedule would vary depending on your lo's wake-up and bedtimes of course but I found that schedule worked wonders for my DS and his naps.

If however you decide to nurse before the naps than you are doing the right thing by changing her and stimulating her before putting her in her crib.  You don't want her associating food with sleep because that is definitely  a hard habit to break!!

Good luck!  Let us know how it goes for you!

[Samuel's mum]

I think as long as you are having a mini activity then the association of nursing/sleep shouldn't be established. Obviously this might become a problem if she starts to become drowsy during the feed. If it's working for you at the moment just check that she's not starting to associate asking to nurse or nursing with feeling tired.
It's great to hear you plan on a year!

[elsa and jethro's mum]

She does tend to become drowsy during the feed...  mmmm.
The  carters mama posted is almost exactly like the one she had about a month ago.
Maybe I'll try feeding her 15 minutes earlier and then have more stories etc and see how that goes.
I know she's getting more breastmilk this way which is great, but don't want to be left with a baby I can't settle without a bf when we've done so well this far!
hopefully see you on the extended nursing page in 6 months time 
thanks
L