7 MO - strange eating pattern between naps

[Swannie]

I wanted to get some opinions on my 7MO's eating pattern.  These LOs are always changing....as soon as we fall into something predictable she mixes it up to keep me on my toes.

Here is a typical day (although it is not terribly consistent):

7:30am - W/U
8:00 - BF
9:00- solids breakfast (lentils or egg, cereal, fruit)
10:45 --12:15- nap
12:30 - BF
1:30- solids lunch (veggies)
sometime btw lunch and nap she will ask for another BF
3:30pm-5pm - nap
(this is where I get confused.....do I give a BF here at 5pm or just have dinner carry her over to the bedtime feed?)
6pm - solids dinner (lentils, veg, sometimes cereal, sometimes fruit)
7:30pm BF and bed
(usually one NF but I have started to limit the amount I let her stay on)

She has STTN four times so far, seemingly randomly in the past couple of weeks.

Is it better to:
a) offer her a BF at 5pm after the nap or,
b) give her some expressed milk in a cup with dinner?

Yesterday we went with option b) and she slept through the night.  Could very well have been a fluke.

Any opinions or suggestions are welcome!

[*Ali*]

Is there any chance of bringing dinner forward to sooner after she wakes up? I wonder if she might take more at that BT BF if she had longer between dinner and the BF.

I know at the age I found it too much to fit in a BF upon WU from nap 2, dinner and the BT BF all into one A time. Also as you are finding the middle A times gets a little long for them to manage a decent nap after only one BF. So I moved the third BF to before the nap and did dinner shortly after the second nap.

Might something similar work for you? You could offer the expressed milk in a cup with dinner if you want. We just offered water with each solid meal though.

[Swannie]

Thanks for the tips!  I will give them a try and let you know how it goes.

Naps were off-pattern today because we were out, so she had BF, dinner and then BF all between waking from the second nap and before bedtime.  But I gave her dinner tonight at 5:30pm instead of 6pm, so that is a start. 

Tomorrow I will try moving the third BF to before the second nap and again putting dinner at 5:30pm.

[Swannie]

Success!  We tried both of Ali's suggestions and last night there was no NF.  She did wake briefly at 11:40pm but just needed a pick up and then a little head stroking before she calmed down and went back to sleep until 8am.

Hopefully this will become our new norm.

Thanks!

[*Ali*]

Sounds promising