Need some eyes on our E

[ENMS]

Hi there,

not sure if this is the right board to post but I couldn't figure out a better place for my question.

DD2 is 9 months old. I'm currently having trouble fitting all of her E's in her day. Currently the day looks something like this:

NF 2:00 (both sides)
NF 5:00  (both sides)
WU 7:30
E 8:00 oatmeal cereal - 3 tbsp mixed with about 50 ml EBM
E 10:00 BF she is not super interested, will not even take a full side.
S 11:00-1:00
E 1:00 BF she will usually take a full side but not more
E 2:30 solids, usually 4-5 tbsp total, fish/chicken mixed with veggies, fruits, rice cakes for finger food
S 4:30-5:00
E 5:15 solids, she will often refuse this meal
E 6:30 BF, sometimes she takes both sides, sometimes not. I always offer a bottle of EBM too she sometimes takes 1-2 oz (she used to take 4 oz)
S 7:15

So, we have just recently come back from vacation with a 9-hour time difference so she's started having that 5AM feed that I can't phase out because she wants to EW so that feed gets her back to sleep. Before this she would still Wake twice for NF's, usually around 12:30 and then 4:30.

As you can see from above, she gets most of her BF at night. I want to wean those NF's (or at least one of them), but before I do I want to improve her day, or know a little more what I am aiming for. I feel like she's never really hungry for anything during the day. She's not too interested in BF and never takes both sides.

I feel like I am offering food / BF too often maybe and thus she's never really hungry? Also, is it ok at this age to offer solids first and BF after?

Would it make sense to aim for this:

NF 5AM
E 8 cereal
E 10 BF
E 1 solids
E 3 BF
E 5 solids
E 6:30 BF?

Any other Schedule you think would be appropriate?

[Lindsay27]

Just a question, and probably a silly one, but wondering if you have tried to settler her at 5am without a feed?  I'm just thinking if she managed to drop that NF then when she woke for the day she would take a good BF and then you could follow the BF first and solids later pattern.  I do think she may be getting full on solids first so doesn't want to BF.

I know that is clearly way easier said than done, but my DD often does the exact same wakings at 2am (feed) and then 5am so I resettle that one if possible.  Lots of times she goes right through to 5am though at which point I need to feed and then the rest of the day is sort of muddled.

[ENMS]

Just a question, and probably a silly one, but wondering if you have tried to settler her at 5am without a feed?

Yes, i have but every time she ended up starting her day then. Probably due to jet lag though, maybe I could try again.  The older 2 kids were really tired from the trip so I did not want her to Wake them either. Maybe I can try again tomorrow.  Generally speaking, she is not very good at being resettled when she wakes at night. She is used to BF.  When we tried to wean a NF (she used to Wake at 10PM too), it would take 2 hours of PUPD she was so mad!

But, the solids before the BF started only a few days ago. I've always been diligent in doing BF first until now, but she really struggles with weight gain and what was happening was that she filled up on BF and refused solids and would not gain any weight.  So either way something is not working out, yk?

I guess she has a very low appetite!

I must say I envy you, having your DD go until 5AM at 2 months!! DD2 never did that once and she is 9 months old!

[Lindsay27]

Yes the majority of the time she will go from 7pm-5am...she's a champ at night but literally does not nap, 30mins is all we get.  You can't have it all right!? Lol

I figured you'd tried resettling without a feed I just figured I'd ask.  If that's the easiest way to get her back to sleep then by all means, 5am is not an appropriate time to start the day...I know because DS did it for the first 2.5yrs of his life!  Such an ungodly hour lol

I'm still sort of thinking you may need to reverse and do BF before solids.  So maybe do the feed at 5am then a top up at WU (7am?) then solids an hour later.  That maybe more of a feeding/BF question though, I could be wrong on that but I think she would still be getting more calories from BF than from food. 

What were you doing before holiday?

[Scottishmummy]

Hi
Hope it's ok to jump in- just wondered if you'd tried feeding only 1 side at the night feeds?

I think the 5am feed is the hardest to drop as it's so close to morning. If it were me, I would probably try to phase out the 2am feed completely maybe reducing time she feeds for by a little every few days and offer only 1 side at 5am to get her back to sleep but ready to take some milk on waking and be hungrier for milk in the day.

I think BF before solids is recommended as milk should still be main nutrition until 12months

Xxx

[ENMS]

So last night went well, I actually did feed her only from one side when she woke at 12:40, and then she slept until 6:30! Yay!

So our E went like this:

NF 12:40 1 side
E 6:30 2 sides
E 8:15 3 tbsp oatmeal cereal + 2.5 oz of EBM
E 12:30 1 side (she would not take more, I offered 15 minutes later and she refused)
E 1:30 she ate very well, about 1/2 cup of veggie / chicken puree, some pears and then rice cakes
E 3:30 1 side

she is now asleep. when she wakes I will only offer solids since she took a feed just before her nap and then offer BF and bottle at BT.

So it worked for today, maybe because she was hungrier than usual since she only had 1 side total overnight vs 4 usually. Usually if I offer BF first she does not eat a lot of solids after, even if I wait more than 1 hour. Without an appropriate amount of solids she does not gain any weight, so that's why I tried this week to put solids before BF. We'll see how it goes, and hopefully she gains her weight well with this routine.

[Scottishmummy]

Looks good- more daytime milk & less at night. I hope those good nights continue for you xxx

[ENMS]

Yes still some great nights - she slept until 4AM 2 nights ago, then I only gave her one side and she slept until 7:30. Last night, she woke around 11PM but DH resettled her (it took a good hour, unfortunately I think she is used that when she wakes at night, she gets to BF to relax into sleep again), but she then slept until 5:30. I again offered one side and she slept until 8. These are the best nights we've ever had!

I still find she does not BF as much as she should during the day (I am back to offering BF first), but I guess at her age she is starting to transition towards more solids, less milk.

[Lindsay27]

Wow good progress!  You are probably right and she is starting the early weaning stages.

[Scottishmummy]

Wow, I'm jealous of your nights! We've still got 3 night feeds *yawn*

[ENMS]

Scottishmummy we had 3 NF's until she was maybe 7.5 months old so I feel your pain! So tiring!