How to add third meal and drop a bottle

[bneydgrl]

Hi ladies...I sure could use your perspective on this.  I feel like i should be inching Ella to bfast. lunch, dinner and bedtime routine but I'm not sure how.   Basically how to get to the 4 hour easy without introducing a dream feed (never did one..dont' want to start now)

A little background....she has a healthy appetite but is still smallish (17lbs at six months) so I don't think we're overfeeding her.

She was eating at 7,10,1,4 and 7 but she started solids at four months.  She now has solids twice a day.  She isn't so hungry for the 10 bottle but b/c the morning nap varies I feel like I need to be flexible with this and the next bottle.  So right now our days look like

wakes around 6;30

7 - 8oz bottle and 2-3 oz of solids

9-9:30 nap (i am sure hoping this would extend until 10 consistently - i've tried earlier and later..don't think it's overtiredness or a factor of timing...i just keep gettting told that naps will extend on their own around six months...hope it's coming soon  )

10/10:30 - bottle --only wants 4-5 oz

12/12:30 - bottle -7-8 oz

12:30/1:00--naps for one hour

3:30-8oz bottle

4:00 - 30 min nap

4:30-2-3oz of solids

6:30-8oz bottle

7-bed

i guess what I'm hoping for is if I could consistently count on her to nap from 9-10 then i would feel good moving the lunch to 11 and then offering a second bottle at 12;30 before her 1 nap (thereby allowing her to phase it out on her own when she's taking enough in at lunch to not be hungry for it)

But since she isn't doing that yet i feel like i need to have the flexibility to move the one bottle up to 10 if i need to (so the second can be before her 12:30 nap) b/c i know she won't be hungry enough to take lunch that early...and thus go with the phase out idea

I'm afraid to go cold turkey and she'll start waking hungry in the night b/c she's not taking in enough calories during the day.

I think i'm overthinking this but that's why I'm posting...to try and get some....this is what we did...you just need to go for it...etc.

(also i know some people do bottle and then an hour later do solids but i would really rather not feel like i'm feeding her all the time and would rather have this meal and then this one...etc)

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

[loliac]

I don't really have advice but wanted to let you know what we did with Allie when she was 6 months old. Our schedule looked like this:

7 wake and eat solids followed by as much bottle as she would take
9 ish, (could vary on time) nap until 10
10am wake/play time
11am solids and bottle (as much as she'll take)
12:30ish nap (hopefully until 2pm but sometimes it's only an hour)
3pm Bottle only
5pm ish  little cat nap
6pm solids and then bath, play time
7pm bottle and book and bed by 7:30.

Hope that helps!!!

No dream feed for us either....

[bneydgrl]

Thanks for replying...when did you add in a third meal?  How much would she drink/eat?  Did she gradually extend out her naps with a little more age?

Thanks!!

[loliac]

You know, I think I just decided that it was time for that schedule and we just started it. No real build up to it. Allie did fine with it and I think she was ready. She seemed happy to be eating more "real" food. At first she would eat a whole jar of food and then about 4 oz. of formula. That was with the number 1 foods. Then we moved into the number 2 foods and she was taking more formula. Like 6 oz.  And as of last week,we are starting the number 3 foods and the number 2 meats and she is still taking about 4 oz. Her naps have changed a little bit. Her morning nap is still her smallest nap (1 hr max) and then her afternoon nap has started extending more. About an hour and a half. She also (as of the last two nights) has cut out her little cat nap in the evening. So I think we are definitely to two naps now, so that's good. She sleeps about 12hrs. at night.

Hope that helps!!

[*Natasha*]

At 5/6 months we introduced a 3rd meal and dropped a bottle and her nap lengths went from 2hrs to 1.5hrs.  This is how things are at the moment:

7am - Bottle 7oz
8am - Cereal and yoghurt
9.30am - Sleep 1.5hrs
12pm - Custard and Jelly
12.30/12.45pm - Bottle 7oz
2pm - Sleep 1.5hrs
4.45pm - Veges/Meat and pasta
6pm - Bath
6.30pm - Bottle 7oz
7pm - Sleep for the night.