Just starting out

[cwolff]

Not sure if I should post this here, or on the Easy forum or both but here goes.  In a couple of weeks, we're going to be starting solids.  Up until now our routine has always been wake, diaper change, tummy time and neck stretches.  Then bottle.  Then play, winddown and nap.

Our times vary ridiculously because she's sometimes a short napper, and so it gets all messed up.  Anyway, I'm not sure how to incorporate solids into this routine, as she is not usually starving when she wakes up due to the short napping.  Even when she's napped well, she's not ravenous.  When I introduce solids where should I fit them in?  I always do tummy time and stretches first before any food because of the spit up factor.  So I have to do those, but then should I do a bottle first.  Then play, and then solids That cuts it pretty close for winddown and naptime, though that might be ok because it will start to keep her up a bit longer.  But it doesn't seem spread out enough.  Should I really start to try to feed her when she first wakes up, so that we can do solids a little later?  I'm afraid if I try to do that, I'll create a snack monster as she won't drink as much bottle.

[sandraorion]

We started with one meal a day. You want to get her used to the spoon and such. Pick a time of the day where she seems to be hungry the most. The general rule is to give her bottle first, then give the solids. However, when we were just starting, I was giving Adrian solids first and then bottle, so that he was more motivated to take  the spoon.

Once, she has the idea what she is supposed to do with the solids, you can introduce another meal into your routine and switch to giving bottle first, and offering as much solids as she wants after she had her bottle. You generally want to go toawrds 3 meals per day.

We started with dinner, then added breakfast, and finally introduced lunch. This happened over about 6 week period. At the end the routine ended up being something like this:

7am - wake up
7 am -bottle
        -breakfast
-play
10 am - nap
12 pm - bottle
          - lunch
-play
1:30 pm     - nap
3:30pm pm - bottle
-play
4:30 pm - nap
-play
6pm-dinner
7 pm -bottle
        -sleep

Generally, with the solids you will be going away from the strickt routine. Your baby will be old enough to understand you and get other queues from you as what is going to happen.

[cwolff]

Thanks..  Another question, do you think that the introduction of solids helped your routine?  And therefore helped iron out nap problems?  I'm having a difficult time with naps.  Well, I should say Rachel is.  =)
Sometimes I put her down in the morning and she naps well, and other times it's 45 minutes.  Lately though, they have all been short and no matter what I cannot extend it.  I was putting her down for her first nap at 2 hours, and that was hard to find time to fill.  Then I tried earlier thinking maybe she was overtired, sometimes this worked, but it hasn't lately.  So I want to go back to 2 hours.  But with the introduction of solids it will give us more to do and I'm hoping it will make the naps sort of become consistent.  Did that happen for you?  I'm also going to ask this question on the naps board.

[sandraorion]

Well, around here 45 minute nap was a great nap. No, solids didn't change the naps but helped a lot with night sleep. Once we started solids seriouslly (3 meals a day, as much as he wants), he started sleeping 12 hours a night without a peep!

In general, with Adrian naps, once they got shorter (from 45 minutes to 20 minutes in our case) it meant that he was ready to stay up longer. Try increasing the awake time and see if you get longer naps back.

Good luck!