EASY and falling asleep last bfeed of day - 8 mos!

[Mom2Gracie]

My 8 month old, Gracie, is generally on the following EASY:

6:30am - wake and bfeed
9:00am - nap (1 - 1.25 hours)
10:15/10:30 - wake and bfeed
12:00noon - solids lunch
1:15/1:30pm - nap (45 min - 1.25 hours)
2:30/2:45pm - wake and bfeed
5:30pm - solids dinner
7:00pm - bfeed and bedtime routine

The problem is, she always falls asleep during the last bfeed.  It's lovely to put her to bed this way since it's so easy but the problem is that now she wants the breast to fall asleep at night.  If my husband tries to feed her at 7pm witha bottle of expressed milk she throws a fit and it takes forever for her to fall asleep because she's so upset.  We used to do a bfeed at 5:30 (she falls asleep for about 10 minutes) and solids at 7pm but she was so tired eating solids that she wouldn't eat well and be cranky.  Why not institute a cat nap?  She was doing a cat nap until she hit about 7 months and then she would just play in her crib for an hour when you tried to put her down.  She just didn't want one.  So we cut it out.  If I move solids up to 4:30 and bfeed her at 6:30pm she will just wake up at 5:30am and she'll fall asleep during the bfeed at 6:30pm the next day because she's been up so long.  Not to mention that I cannot do 5:30am wake up!  i wouldn't even know how to properly fit in solids to an EASY program - or do EASY at all - if she woke up at 5:30am.  she only sleeps 10.5 hours at night - not 12.  I'm not complaining but I know if we make a habit of 6:30 bedtime she will wake up very early, so I'd like to avoid that.

I know this isn't a horrible problem, but if I'm the only one that can put her to bed I'll feel like I can never go out unless I decide to torture my husband or a babysitter.  Should I try to elongate naps?  She generally wakes up happy.  Should we go back to solids at 7pm?  She may catnap for 10 minutes or so at my breast if I bfeed her around 5:30 and maybe that would give her the energy to get through a good solids dinner?  I've been contemplating going to formula soon, maybe now is a good time to start and then she would get a bottle no matter what.  I just really wanted to bfeed a bit longer.

Any help or better schedule recommendations are appreciated!

[* Paula *]

Sorry for the delay in replying to you.

Just wondering what your bed time routine is like - and what time you start?

[Mom2Gracie]

Our bedtime routine consists of reading a short book, singing 3 songs and then we lay her in the crib.  Problem is that I can't get to the routine part because she falls asleep during the Bfeed.  Over the last 4-5 days we've switched around the solids and the bfeed.  So now we try to put her down for a catnap again around 5-5:30pm and she might sleep for 20-30 min and then I bfeed her. Or, if I come home from work at 5:30pm and she hasn't catnapped, I'll bfeed her and she fall asleep during the bfeed and sleep in my lapfor 10 minutes.  But this seems to give her the little boost of energy she needs to eat a good solids dinner at 7:00pm and then we put her to bed with no bfeed.  This seems to be working ok, except that she often doesn't want to go down for a catnap without the bfeed.  But I'm going to try it again today and see how it goes.

Also, I live in Boston, MA, USA.  We have a little thing called daylight savings time where we roll back our clocks one hour at the end of october.  Any tips on how best to deal with this so that she doesn't start waking regularly at 5:30am every morning versus her current 6:30am?

[* Paula *]

Here is a link with information with regards to Dayling savings

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=44509.msg297160#msg297160

Let us know how you get on today with regards to the Cat Nap.

Paula x