Starting solids and breastfeeding

[SarahE]

Hi there,

My daughter (6.5 months) is currently on her third week of solids and seems to be really enjoying it. She's currently having 6 small ice cubes and we are looking to increase as she is finishing and still looking for more.
She's on just one solids meal a day about 12 noon.

Prior to solids our BF routine was

6.30/7am - wake
7.15/7.30 ish - BF
9.15 - BF top up pre nap
9.30 - nap
11am wake
12 - BF
1.20 -BF top up pre nap
1.30 - nap
3.30 - wake
4pm - Bf
5.30 - EBF (100-120ml)
6.30 - top up pre bed
6.45-7pm bed

No night wakings or feeds.

Now she is on solids the 12  noon  BF is at 11.30.

I'm due to go back to work two days a week in just under three months and I'm going to express so she has bottles for daycare. I'm starting to freeze milk as my supply when expressing seems a bit hit and miss.

So I guess my questions are - do I seem to be feeding to much? If so which should I cut? She's not fed to sleep but nap and bed routine is feed, story, bed. I obv don't know how much she is drinking as she BF predominantly so how do I work out what I will need for daycare? She will be  9.5 months when she goes.

TIA 

[*Ali*]

I'm a believer in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"! So I don't think you have any reason to change anything right now. Just thank your lucky stars that she is sttn. ☺

3 months is a long time in a baby's life so her routine will be very different by then. How things will probably go overt the next 1-2 months is you'll be able to drop the top ups before the naps as you add in 2 more solids meals. So you will probably feed on wake up and give solids about an hour later in all three of the A times and then have a BT BF as you do now.

At 9.5mo, if you can feed her yourself at morning WU and BT you will only really need 2 bottles in the day while at work. Maybe only 1 even depending on your work hours and if you can squeeze in that 3rd feed after you pick up. You could try out the bottle before she goes and see how much she takes.  Or you could start by offering say 5oz and if she drinks all that you could offer an extra ounce the next day.  Try to freeze in small quantities like 2oz and 3oz bags.  That way you can defrost exactly how much you need by adding bags together.  Or do some 5oz and some 1oz for example.  You don't want it all in 5ozs and then she only drinks 4oz or wants 7oz, yk?

[SarahE]

Awesome thanks Ali.

I have the last couple of days experimented with cutting the lunch time on pre solids as she is having about half a cup now...first day was great didn't affect anything, however the night before last night she woke screaming 4 hrs after bedtime and last night she woke at 2.30 - and on off grizzled for 1 hour then cried. I try to resettle both times without feed but my gut said she was hungry so after 30 mins of trying to resettle I fed. She took a decent amount one full side and half the other side - which is about a normal feed. We have also last night introduced a solids dinner two hrs before BT.

I think I will go back to offering as I did as she has always been a grazer/snacker but to me takes good amounts - I have oversupply so generally feed one side and pump the other. When I pump the other I generally get 120-160ml so I know she takes more, or I'm guessing she does as she will be more efficient. More often than not if I offer both sides she will take it, but 8 out of 10 times she will have a big spill after.