Feeding schedule - 3-2 transition

[Layla]

Hi ladies

We're heading down the 3-2 path and J has been sleeping straight through some nights (no DF) from 5.30-5.30 and waking up up to 2 times others, all of which I am happy with but at the same time I want to make sure she's eating enough during the day too. Before the 3-2, she would eat every 3.5hrs (sometimes 4) and we had up to 5 feeds during the day with either none, 1 or 2 feeds at night but now that she's taking 2 naps our E's are apart quiet a bit. Our day looks something like this (the 5.30-5.30 is perfect for us since our clocks will be changing in 3 weeks or so):

She's 5 months and 1 week (she was 2 weeks overdue, which sometimes makes me wonder if I should think of her as 5m3w ). I am still experimenting with A times and some days she will take 3 naps (if either am or pm nap is shorter or if she wants to sleep sooner for either naps). The below schedule is what she did yesterday.

5.30ish (wake) and E - offered both but she only took 1
8.30-10 - morning nap
10am - E (both sides)
1-2.40 - afternoon nap
2.40 - E (both sides)
4.30 - E (offered both but she usually only took 1)
5.30 - E and bed (again offered both but she usually only took 1)
11ishpm - woke and E (both sides)
4ish - woke and E (offered 1 side and the other this morning when she woke for good at 5.30ish am)

So she's going 4.5hrs between E's in the morning and afternoon and then shorter E's in the evenings. Should offer a "top up" feed before naps? With DD1 and 2 we didn't drop the CN until 8-9 months and by then they were on solids. This morning I offered J some avocado (only a teaspoon; she's been showing signs of being ready and I keep thinking she's not getting enough ). I gave it to her at around 7am (well after milk feed). I worry a little about my supply going right down b/c of her sttn some nights and my maternal and child health nurse told me I should either wake her up for feeds or express at night (esp around 2am) to ensure my supply is adequate  .

If anyone could post their feeding schedule when baby was on 2 naps, that would be much appreciated

TIA

[*Ali*]

Do you have a history of supply issues? Just wondering why your health pro thinks you should wake her at night I would think many LOs are doing long stretches by this age. Mine were certainly doing 7 or 8pm until 5am or so many nights.

When we moved to two naps with Colby we did BFs at morning wake up about 6.30, immediately before nap 1 (because he wasn't eating solids in the am for quite a while) about 10, 2 (middle of 2nd A) and then BT about 6.30.

When we moved to 2 naps with Cadan we did BFs at 8, 12.45 (after 2hr nap as he was eating cereal before his nap), 5.30 (after 2nd nap) and 7.30pm before BT. I did later move the 3rd BF to before the second nap as it was affecting his BT feed once he started having a solid food dinner and 2 BFs in the last A time.

[Layla]

No Ali, no history of supply issues... i think she just thought 12 hr stretch is too much for 5mo 

Thank you for giving me your feeding schedule - I will see how I go with doing a feed maybe just before nap 

[Fiver]

Sounds like your HCP doesn't know a massive amount about BF   Your body is now producing milk in response to sucking, so the more LO sucks, the more milk you'll make.  Like Ali said, there are LOs who are regularly STTN at 5m without mum having problems with supply.

[ArielG]

Hi! I thought I'd jump in here as well to share what we did when we switched to 2 naps (around 6/7months)...we've always nursed right after waking and when going from 3 to 2 naps, we dropped a feeding but it seemed she just adjusted and ate more per feeding. Also, at 6 months, we were doing some solids and I was paranoid about her not getting enough (she was sttn without DF)...so I fed her things like hard-boiled egg yolk, coconut butter mixed with fruit purees, mashed squash with plenty of high quality butter or some coconut oil, or olive oil. Anyway, she's always been a great eater and is a healthy weight.

6:30 BF
8:00 E (1 or 2 food servings)
9:30 S
11:00 BF
12:30 E (1 or 2 food servings)
2:00 S
3:30 BF
4:30 (snack...)
6:00 BF
6:30 Asleep for the night

The period of time between the 2nd nap and bed was weird for a while...I felt like I was cramming her full of food/milk! We've since dropped the feeding after the 2nd nap and are down to 4 (sometimes 3 subbing a snack now that she's 11 months) per day. I was always worried about supply and took fenugreek religiously (like you, I heard horror stories about losing my supply) but finally stopped taking it because I was just always too full. I'm happy to say that my supply is great at 3 feedings per day!

Good luck and my best advice is just to feel it out and be open to experimenting, things change so much so quickly anyway and as soon as you have it down, it'll change..haha.

[Layla]

Thanks Ariel

We also started solids about a week ago (just rice cereal for breakfast with some fruit/veg for lunch) but I've cut back now because she's been majorly constipated last few days so I cut it down to 1 meal a day (which is only a few teaspoons anyway) and I stopped giving her rice cereal altogether and have been giving her some porridge with prunes for breakfast and will stick to just BFs for the rest of the day and maybe next week we'll work on offering her some things for lunch.

The period of time between the 2nd nap and bed was weird for a while...I felt like I was cramming her full of food/milk!

Haha, yes, it does feel a bit weird with all that cluster feeding but she doesn't seem to mind. I've actually moved the 2nd last E to just before bath as I was finding she was falling asleep and not taking as much in so now I do 1 side just before bath and then we do bath and I offer the other side and she then goes to sleep. She will still wake anywhere from 0-2 times and I am ok with that but I've stopped giving her both sides at the 11pm feed and she seems to be ok with that too - I hope to gradually wean this feed by the time she is 9 months and solids are well established then work on the early morning feed soon after that

[ArielG]

That's funny, Layla, we did the same thing (feeding before and after bath)...

We also dealt with some bad constipation in the beginning and I ended up stopping cereals until she was 8 months after reading that their little tummies may not be quite ready to break down the carbs. We did a lot of prunes and fruits and veg and added some olive oil to veg and it really helped with her constipation. I also gave her whole plain yogurt from 7 months and that helped too. We also found that she was totally bound up by bananas and squash so we pretty much stopped that as well. I actually think my DD is prone to constipation and will always just need lots of fluids.

Best of luck with the 3-2 transition! That was pretty rough for us but we got through somehow though I swear it took months!