Going from 4 milk feeds to 3

[NovMum2010]

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I just can't find it.

My LO is almost 9 months and I am in the process of winding down breastfeeding. I am down to 2 bfs a day - morning and after her first nap.

Her schedule is something like this (depending on when she wakes!)

wakes 7.30am -  bf
8.30am - breakfast
9.30am - nap for 1.5/2 hrs
11.00am - bf
11.30/12.00 - lunch
1.00/1.30pm - nap
3.30/4.00pm - 7oz bottle
5.30pm - dinner
7.00pm - 7oz bottle and bed

She might leave an oz in each bottle or an oz in just one. She might drain both or just leave 2 oz in one. It's random.
She generally eats quite well and so far dislikes nothing!! She usually gets porridge with fruit in it in the morning, a mix of veg followed by a yoghurt for lunch and then a dinner of veg, protein and pasta/potatoes etc.

I'm about to drop the mid morning bf but I feel that she doesn't need a bottle at this point. I certainly don't want to add one only to take it away again in a week or two if you know what I mean. I'm thinking of just skipping this milk feed and giving her lunch (increasing the amount maybe). She doesn't seem to be taking a huge bf at this time anyway.

Does this seem like a good idea or good timings?  Should I be giving her 8oz bottles?
Would the 3.30pm bottle be better before her 2nd nap and her 2nd nap moved a bit later? She does get fussy coming up to bed time as if she is up too long. Should she be awake for longer between naps?

Also should I be giving protein at lunch time too or what kind of things could I give for lunch instead of what I'm doing?

[Lolly]

Hello and welcome to the boards!

Here is a link so you can see what others have done with babies the same age as yours http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164253.0 . If you look at the routines you will see the average awake time for a 9mo is about 3.5 hours so you can stretch your LO to that, but do it gradually by 10/15 mins every couple of days so she doesn't get OT.

With dropping the BF what is your long term aim? If you drop that mid morning feed I think you are right not to replace it with a bottle, but it will impact on your supply so if you want to continue to feed her for longer it may be better to do a BF instead of a bottle feed in the afternoon. If you don't mind, and you intend to stop then a bottle in the afternoon just before a nap is a good idea. I would offer 8oz bottles so she can take what she needs.

We put my DD onto 3 bottles around 8 months (milk refusing refluxer, she took more on 3 bottles) so she had a wake up bottle, one around 2/2.30 before a nap (but not fed to sleep) and a bedtime bottle.

With lunch, you can offer the same foods you offer for her evening meal if she has protien there and you want her to have more protien. I started finger foods for my two as soon as we started weaning so by this age they were having things like sandwiches for lunch with something like cheese spread or thin ham. Yoghurt gives them protien too!

HTH!

Laura

[NovMum2010]

Hi Lolly, thank you so much for the reply.

I am ready to stop breastfeeding. I'm just trying to give a week or so between dropping each bf so that I don't get sore or get blocked ducts etc. The bottle before her afternoon nap would be perfect if she just stayed awake a little longer! She loves her sleep though.
There will be no issue with feeding her to sleep. She always goes down awake and we rarely need to go back into her.  She does use a soother but I am happy to continue with that for now as she very rarely wakes up looking for it and if she does she can usually find it in the cot herself.

I suppose trying to stretch that time before her 2nd nap is probably the best place to start.
I will have a look at that link with routines you gave me anyway. Thanks!

As for lunch, she is quite good with finger food but at the same time I'm not sure how well she would manage a sandwich just yet. Only one way to find out I suppose. Maybe toast with melted cheese might be easier to start with.
I also need to get a high chair better suited to finger feeding as the one I have I'm now finding is a disaster. Much too awkward for her. I'm looking at an Ikea one.

Really I think I am just crap at thinking of things for her to have. I over think it then too of course!

[Lolly]

Have a look here http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=10.0 you should be able to get a few ideas!

Laura