bedtime feeding question

[dcanepa]

I posted an issue on the sleeping board earlier today and realized that I, also, had a question about eating.  My DD 6 month old (almost - will be next week) has a good eating schedule and EASY.  My question is about eating at bedtime.  Her wake time in the morning seems to be different everyday depending on how the night went, so her 4 hour easy gets pushed back and forward everyday.  She sticks to eating every 4 like clockwork, but I am hoping to set the same bedtime every night in the hopes of helping the sleeping issues.  So, if she didn't eat for the first time in the morning until 9, based on a 4 hour easy, her last feeding of the day would be at like 9 pm.  I want bedtime to be 8.  I have tried just feeding her then but she won't eat cause she is not hungry.  Do I just put her to bed anyway?  She eats 7-8 oz bottles and has a veggie in the afternoon and oatmeal before bed.

[dcanepa]

I just read some more posts and wondered about her solid eating.  I don't feed her a bottle every 4 hours and then solids an hour or so later.  I just feed her the solids with the bottle feeding.  It is very rare that she will not drink all of her bottle when doing this.  Before bed, she eats a TON of oatmeal mixed with prunes (she loves it and we feed her until she doesn't want anymore), then bathtime, then a 8oz bottle and then bed.  Is this ok?  Could all that oatmeal be contributing to many NW starting after 3 am?

[Lolly]

It could well be, that's quite late in the day to be eating a big meal for a LO not yet 6 months.

What's your day routine like now? Do you feed her as soon as she wakes? If you want to set a bedtime then really you would be better setting a wake up time too, so if you want bedtime at 8 then wake up needs to be 8 as well.

Laura

[dcanepa]

That's exactly what I want, but she has terrible NWs (I posted another issue about this in the sleep forums if you want to read about it there).  So, sometimes she gets up at 8, but most of the time it is some other time than 8, both earlier or later.  For example, this morning she got up at 5:15 (after only sleeping 8 hours with a NW at 3:00).  I tried to get her back to sleep like I always do, but she was not having it so we got up and I fed her.  Based on that, bedtime tonight would be 6ish and that is too early.  Even on a good night she was never slept longer than 10 hrs and 4 am is too early.  I am guessing that all of this is related and I will move oatmeal to earlier in the day.

So for tonight, what would you do?  Feed her at 6 and then try to top her off at 8 and put her to bed?  She is the type of baby who will not eat unless she is hungry which is why I am apprehensive about feeding her only 2 hours apart.  She is like clockwork - every 4 hours.  What do you think?  Maybe skimp on the bottle at 6 so she will eat at 8?