Breastfeeding and Solids - how much?

[nwrinkle]

I need some guidance!  My daughter is 9.5 months old.  She has been exclusively bf.  She eats 3 meals a day of solid foods.  Her schedule is:
   7 -wake/bf
   8 - cereal
   9 - nap
   10 - wake
   1030 - bottle of pumped milk (6oz)
   1115 - lunch (solid food)
   1230 - nap
   230-300 - wake
   300 - bottle (6oz)
   530 - dinner
   700 - bath
   730 - breastfeed
   1030 - dreamfeed (trying to cut this out)
She is still waking at night, but not always hungry.  She used to sleep through the night, but accidental parenting, sickness, and teeting happened.  Anyway, I feel like she is not getting enough solids in and that is one reason she is waking.  How do we slowly ween away from one of her feedings in order to give her more solids?  What is a good schedule to follow?  My milk supply has been having issues lately so I have been suffering during the day to try to get 12 oz for her bottles for the next day.  Would it be best to try to get rid of one of her day bottles and work on more solid foods?  Is she getting too much milk and that is why she won't eat more?  Can the dreamfeed be hendering her eating and waking? 
Need help!! 
-Nancy

[GraceKellysmom]

Yes, the dreamfeed may have something to do with it. If she's not getting a good deep stretch of sleep she may not have the right sleep stages for the rest of the night. Sleep changes around this time, where their sleep cycles become more like an adults than a baby. If you can drop it, you may see a sleep change in a week or so.

She sounds like she's perfect for a 9 month old, 3 solids meals and 4 milk feeds. Around 9-10 months some babies will drop to 3 milk feeds, some will keep 4 until 11 months or so and then start dropping. Each baby is so different.

Mine were waking around 9-10 months for teething and because they both learned to pull up and cruise around then. Is your baby doing anything (or about to) developmentally that could be causing the wakings? Do you feed her when she wakes?

[nwrinkle]

Thank you for your reply!  My daughter is very active right now.  She pulls herself up, stands and is trying to walk.  Lately, she has been good about us being able to lay her back down and her go to sleep.  We are still doing the dream feed, but are trying to phase it out.  What is the best way to do this?  The book says to increase ouces during the day and then move the feeding up at night.  With breastfeeding, I am not sure how to increase her amounts during the day.  Or can you increase with food also?  Should we just go cold turkey on the df and work more with pu/pd method?  Then maybe she would eat more during the day?  When she wakes at night, I have not been feeding her.  For the past few nights we have done df around 10pm and then she wakes around 7am.

[GraceKellysmom]

With my dd, I fed her dinner about 90 min before bed, and then nursed her before bed.

Why not try to go cold turkey and see what she does? Most will not even notice if you change up the routine a little bit.

Yes, you can increase the solids a little during the day. You may notice an odd growth spurt here if she is trying to walk very seriously. My kids both had growth spurts around the time they walked independently, for them around 13 months though.

[nwrinkle]

We have cut out the dreamfeed now for the past two nights and she has slept through the night both nights!  It has been great!!  I feed her about 8p before bedtime and she sleeps till 6 or so.  She was waking up at 7 or 730am with the dreamfeed, but she was also waking in the middle of the night!  So, this I can handle!  Also, with knocking out the df, she seems to be eating better during the day.  Thanks for all of your advice.....

[GraceKellysmom]

Awesome for both of you!