7.5 MO - schedule with meals and snacks and bottles?

[Tammyj]

Hello momma's! Hoping you can provide some guidance.

I have a 7.5 MO who is on 3 meals a day.  She also receives bottles of Breastmilk - they are currently at 5 ounces each. 

Here is her schedule:
7 - wake and bottle
8:30/8:45 - breakfast
9:45/10 - nap - this can go from 30 mins to 2 hours
10:45/11 - bottle
12:30 - lunch
1:45/2 - bottle
Nap right after - this goes anywhere between 30 and 1:30 hours
3:30 - snack

This is where I struggle.  What should come next? She's not really interested in another bottle yet, and so I'll feed her food at 5:30 and I'll serve it with breastmilk versus water.  I then try to give her a bottle before bed at 7. What is the best approach with the bottle? I know that's more important than the food, but I'm trying to ramp up to 3 meals, too?

I also dreamfeed at 10 (should i be stopping this about now?)
She also awakes at 4 for a nursing (can range from a full feed or a snack)

Also, thinking maybe I should up her bottles to 6 ounces.  I tried last 2 days and her naps were a little longer - maybe that's needed? But shouldn't she be reducing milk?

In the last week, she has also dropped her naps from 3 to 2.  This is tough because she could wake at 3 and then I only get 1 hour with her (from 5 to 6) before she gets grumpy and tired. Tell me this is a phase... I want more awake time with her. 

Thanks for your help!

W

[Lindsay27]

I found this stage kinda awkward too and we actually ended up dropping to 3 bottles at 8 months but increased their size - 3 x 7oz bottles at 7am, 2pm, and 7pm.  For now I think you are doing okay, what I would sometimes do is offer a bottle before nap at 1:30/2ish and then offer a top up after nap, then dinner at 5:30ish followed by the BT bottle.  But at this point my DD needed a solid 4-5 hours between her afternoon feed and BT one in order to take a good bottle before bed.  I don't have any experience with the DF but my thought is that if you dropped it the other feeds would maybe increase.

[creations]

Looks like what you are doing is fine in terms of times. There are still 4 milk feeds in the day even though you have a solids snack in there too.  Often people switch one milk feed to the solids snack but if your LO needs something (milk) before nap and something (snack) after nap then I see no harm in that.  I'd certainly keep the WU and BT milk feeds regardless of what else moves or switches in the day/night.
It's a bit early for milk to be reducing, often when one bottle/breast feed is dropped (or switched to snack) the other feeds increase in size so the overall milk intake is roughly the same.  And the solids are in addition to milk rather than instead of milk.

2 feeds at night is not uncommon for BF babies so the DF and NF you have is normal. If you are considering dropping a milk feed anywhere though I'd suggest one of the night feeds. You could slowly reduce it over a week or two and make sure that the day bottles are big enough for her.

We usually suggest that all bottles should not be drained but that when LO has finished there should be an oz or so left in the  bottle so you know she's had her fill.  You can't really force her to have more but you can be sure to offer as much as she will take.

If the BT bottle is not going so well I'd consider cutting back on some of the solids meal sizes a bit. Either reduce the size of dinner or that afternoon snack (or both) depending how much she's taking.  I'd say you do want a good BT milk to help her through the night especially if you want to reduce the night feeds.
Portion sizes on solids need only be quite small.  If she is really into her solid food perhaps try more finger foods and self feeding now if you are not already. LOs who enjoy their food are often very happy to have food the same as Mummy and self feed.

Tell me this is a phase... I want more awake time with her. 

  Of course it's a phase   Before you know it she'll be up for 5-6 hrs at a stretch and you'll be begging her to go for her one nap so you can have a break!!
When LOs drop a nap they are often tired earlier in the evening and BT might need to come earlier for a while but it does tend to stretch out again after a while.