Would be interested to know:

how much does he/she eat?
what naps does he/she take?
does he/she still feed at night?

feel like we are getting it all wrong at the minute - it all went well until about 5 months (pre weaning but tha hasn't made any difference!) and would love to hear what others do, if you have a fixed routine and esp if you don't what does your child do???

esp interested if you are still b'fing
hoping to pick up some tips

Thanks!

terms that should read in title

am queen of typos can spell honest

Luvaduck, DS is not bf but our routine is:

morning: 7oz bottle (a lot of which is used to make up porridge)

Nap (anything from 20 mins to 1 1/2 hours)

Mid Morn: banana or yoghurt or toast

11am: savour jar

12am 4oz bottle

Nap (depends on his ealier nap but can be up to 1 1/2 hours)

Mid afternoon: yoghurt or banana

4pm: pudding jar

evening: bath then bed.

We have a 'flexible' routine in that we like to stick roughly to these times but fit around son and his sleeps. If there's too much going on, the naps get all out of kilter but we get there. DP and i found a routine worked well for all of us but it's impossible to stick to it rigidly and wouldn't want to - it would be too restricting, but the above routine has worked well for us.

thanks for that!
and how does he sleep? what time roughly does he go down for lunchtime nap?
def agree with flexible routines
problem is ds going longer and longer between naps so midday nap is now at about 3pm!

anyone else??

He went down at 12.15pm this afternoon but sometimes it's not until 1.30pm. If DS went down at 3pm i would consider waking him up before 4pm to keep to his bed time, but on days when he doesn't have an afternoon sleep, i try to keep him amused until around 5.30pm so he's bathed and in bed at 6pm. He's currently going through a phase of crying when put down for his night time sleep but otherwise he sleeps really well.

Does you DS have a morning nap? How long for? Sometimes DS is back in bed for a nap only an hour after we've got him up for his breakfast!

DS 2 is 9 months old and has routine roughly as follows:

Wake around 6am - 60z bottle, some of which goes on porridege, weetabix

Breakfast - 8am - Cereal, mashed banana, and toast

9am - nap for roughly 30 mins - 1 hour

11.30-12.00 - lunch half savoury jar, finger foods (from brother's plate!), yoghurt/fruit puree

1pm - nap (anything up to 2 hours)

3pm - 6oz bottle (usually only drinks 3oz)

4.30-5pm tea varies - anything from fish fingers to mashed potato and beans, followed by either yoghurt or fruit puree.

6.30ish - bath, followed by 6oz bottle, brush teeth, bed at around 7pm

Hope this helps!

Ooops, forgot to mention that DS gets a 7oz bottle at bedtime too and that he's 8.5 months.

DD2 is 8mths.

how much does he/she eat?

6am 5/6oz Milk
7.30am either 1/2 jar porridge or 1/2 slice toast
10.30am 5oz Milk
12pm either 1/2 jar of food then a youghat or finger food.
2.30pm 5oz food
5pm - dinner (tonight yorshire pudding and Veg)
7pm - 6oz Milk.

what naps does he/she take?

Wakes between 6/6.30am
has a sleep between 8.30/9am (walking dd1 to school) for about an hour.
1pm has about 2hours.
bed between 6.30pm to 7pm

does he/she still feed at night?

She have never realy feed during the night her last feed tends to be around 11.30pm.

so VERY roughly
7am up and bf (often not v hungry as has fed in night)
8am breakfast eg weetabix and bit of fruit
930 or 10 nap for 45 mins
1130/12 lunch (one or two annabel big ice cubes worth puree and a bit of finger food)

all good so far
but then lunchtime nap often not till 2 or even later some days sometimes has 45 mins sometimes hour and half if lucky

breastfeed on waking
dinner finger foods and puree at 5
bath etc 6
breastfeed 630 doesn't take much here so sleeps for 45 mins and has top up breast feed at 745ish
sleeps well until roughly 4am another breastfeed and then sleeps till 630/7

often also has a feed at 12pm but trying to night wean at moment

problem is now he is going much longer between naps, so lunch nap more like afternoon and then the afternoon milk feed, dinner, and then pre bed feed are all crammed close together so he isn't massively hungry at any of them, and then takes calories at night.

trying to jiggle so really interested what others do, and what works for other babies

think i need to breastfeed more in day (just read kelly mom link about feeding first before food) so he doesn't need it at night
if he still refuses to go down for lunchtime nap will just accept it and bring lunch forward and breastfeed before nap (which will be afternoon)

realise this is prob difficult to read...

luvaduck, I sympathise. We got into a nice routine around the 5 month mark and its all slowly starting to go to pot now DD is 8 months. As an example, she woke at 4.45 this morning, then for the first time ever when waking early (i.e before 6 in our house!) , she fell back to sleep 5.45 - 6.30. Then tried to put her down for MN at 9.15 and she absolutely refused. Maybe she was overtired at that point but there were no signs of tiredness before that (who knows!). Have now given her an early lunch and she fell asleep on a bottle absolutely wiped out at 11.45 and is still sleeping although has stirred twice. Am debating how long I leave her asleep for and dreading what this means for early waking tomorrow with only one DN. So all in all, not feeling overly successful on the parenting front today . On a good day however, routine is pretty much the same as desparately's. Is your DS having a long mn? may be the reason for the late sleep if so. Will watch this thread with interest to see if any pearls of wisdom I can adopt

no just 45 mins in am

so true - was great (almost like a gina routine but one that he had adopted himself) and then he started nightfeeding so day feeds and sleeps went out of kilter. such a good sleeper till then.

i think i have inadvertently increased the times between his naps so he only starts to get tired after being awake for 3 hours or so. so prob will have to do morning and afternoon nap and try and fit in enough feeds around so he doesn't need them at night.

trying not to get stressed as he is very happy thriving little boy and nightfeeds have to stop at some point! but you do feel like a bit of a failure sometimes if you have a bad day, especially when you are exhausted.

but thanks guys is really useful to see what others do in real life rather than reading books about routine - we are never going to fit into that category....

ds is 9mo, typical day;

-wakes at 8am, porridge with cows milk then bottle, sometimes 6oz, sometimes none!

-mid morning snack, banana, cheese, toast etc

-12 noon lunch,around a jar amount of something homemade or a jar if out and about followed by a fromage frais and water

-4pm dinner - same as lunch, followed by bottle, usually has around 5oz, then some cheese, fruit or organix crisp things or rice cake etc

-7.30 bath (usually) bottle (always has 8oz) then bed.

He sleeps through until 8am.

In terms of naps he rarely has any now apart from in car/buggy but when he does at home they range from 15 mins to 1 hour, just once a day though! has anyone got any tips to get him to nap? it makes life quite difficult that he doesn't! but at least he sleeps all night!

Always so interesting to see what other babies do!

DS is 7.5 months. Rough routine is as follows:

5.30-6.30 Wakes up (god knows what affects waking time - can't work it out)

7am Milk, regardless of waking up time; usually takes 5-7oz

8.30am Breakfast - usu a couple of spoons of porridge or Weetabix with cow's milk, and half a banana

9am Nap, usu of 30-60 mins

11.45am Lunch - an Annabel Karmel sized 'portion' of one of her protein recipes, plus a bit of finger food (rice cake, bread etc), plus a bit of yoghurt and fruit

12.30pm Nap of anywhere from 30-90 mins.

2.30pm Milk, anywhere between 3 and 7oz, I guess depending on how calorific his lunch was

4.30pm Occasionally a short nap, but only if he slept really badly earlier

5pm Tea - a portion of AK non-protein recipe (e.g. veg with cheese sauce), plus fruit

6.30pm Bath

6.50pm Milk (anywhere between 3 and 6 oz)

7/7.15pm Bed

In the next couple of days I'm planning to move part of breakfast to a mid-morning snack, and hopefully push lunch to 12pm. Daytime sleeping is finally better now (usu about 2 hours in total, split between morning and lunchtime) - until recently he'd only sleep for max 20 mins at a time and was permanently exhausted. I don't know what made a difference - I think it's because he's now more physically active. Don't know what to suggest to help yours sleep in the day. Do you put him in his cot? A friend of mine found her girls finally slept better when she put them in sleeping bags in cot, whereas before she'd tried to get them to nap in pushchair or wherever.

HTH

My DD is as follows:

7am-8am wakes up

Nappy change and breastfeed

9am-9.30am Breakfast of toast, weetabix or porridge

10.15 nap

Wakes up anything between 12-2pm

Breastfeed

1.30pm Lunch of whatever im having or jar sometimes if round a friend's

3pm another nap if morning one wasn't long, if it was then no nap

6pm Tea of whatever we have, followed by bath

7.30 Breastfeed and bed at 7.45

Sleeps through night. Very occasionally has another b/feed at 10pm.

That looks as though I only change her nappy once a day

I have always put DD for daytime naps in her cot, just like at night. Have done this since 6 weeks. We have a velux window with blackout blind in her room so its pitch black in there, this helps I think. She has always been a very good sleeper though, sometimes I have to wake her! But when she is awake she is very very lively and active and I think she just wears herself out so easily.

On Kellymom it suggests two meals a day max at this age to make sure that they still take plenty of milk but she is on 3 as she has such a good appetite. Just make sure that LO isn't taking less milk-they shouldn't be until about a year IIRC.

hi

here's my contribution
DS 8 months tomorrow (where has that time gone?

6.30 BF
plays like crazy for a bit
8am Nap
9.15 Breakfast - shreddies with fruit, and nicks pieces of banana from me
If he doesn't have an 8am nap then he will sleep around 10.30 but only for 30 mins
12.30 Lunch - meat/fish and carbs then pudding - yog/jelly/rice pud.
1.30 nap for 1 1/2 hours (so i get to watch ER)
3pm BF
5.30 supper - cheese sandwich or pasta or other finger foods
7.00 bath, BF and bed by 7.30

Obv if we are out and about it all goes up in the air.

i got a bit flummoxed by how fast the afternoon meals and milk seem to come. But i separated out milk and food quite early on so they were separate events for him.

DD 8 Months

7am Wake up
7.30 Breakfast - cereal, toast soldier, water
8.30 - 9am Breastfeed then nap 30 to 90 mins.

(I know, I know, I shouldn't feed her to sleep but she's so fidgety these days it's the easiest way to get a good feed into her.)

12 ish Lunch - about half a jar or a random number of icecubes of mush, pud and some finger foods.

2 - If we're at home, then another bfeed and then nap - 30 to 90 mins.

If we're out and about she might kip in the pram (30 mins maybe) after lunch and then bfeed a bit later - 2.30 or 3ish.

5.30 Tea - another half a jar, pud and bits and bobs.

6.30 bath and shouting
7 last bfeed
7.30 at latest - bed.

She usually feeds once in the night - sometime between 3am and 5. She's naturally cut down from 2 night feeds about 1 month ago and after we upped the solid food and cut out one milk feed during the day. Though it could well be a coincidence.

As she's such a faffy feeder during the day I don't really mind getting up once in the night so I feel like she's still getting a good amount of milk. Also the couple of times we've tried not feeding her have been disasterous, so the above is a blatant attempt to convince myself it's ok to night feed.

All in all I feel like I'm not doing things properly . But on the other hand, barring teething and colds, DD is a contented, cheerful little bean, so if she's happy I'm happy .

6am..8/9 oz bottle has recently gne back to sleep till 7 am

7.30-8am breakfast..bigbowl of porrigewith 6 oz milk or 1 weetabix with same amont of milk, pot of fruit, piece of toast with butter,
8.30 /9am ..nap for 1-1 1/2 hrs..small BF

10am snack organix crn snacks/ricecakes , piece of fruit, Bf

12.30 lunch..eats huge amounts...6-8 large ice cubes homemade food. 1 pot fruit puree with natural yog, piece of fruit and will munch on pieces of veg or whats on my plate, drink water

1.30 naptime ...around 1 to 1 1/2 hrs hours

2.30.. 8 oz bottle [not always drinks all of it]

5 pm another meal size similar to lunch..will carry on eating if i let him i think !!

6.30 bath
7.00 bedtime..bottle [8oz..drinks about 6]

used to wake until coupl eof dys ago at 10 and drink another 8 oz botle but has been lasting till 2am..putdummy back in and straight back to sleep..wakes 5/6 am .8/9 oz bottle..
from reading this my ds seems to eat sooo much ..but is not fat but big for his age..hes 8 months but is wearing 12-18 month clothes hes so tall.!

like i said its only recently that weve had one waking at night as hes been a nightmare up till last week , he used to wake sometimes every hour or two..most id get would be three hours but seems to be better when i don tfeeed him in the night and sleeps longer just needs to be resettle d with dummy..

I will never ever say that people shouldn't feed their babies to sleep! It was the only way ds would go to sleep and it saved my sanity. Still does if he's particularly fractious and overtired.

DS is 9 months and is in this routine which is flexible but usually resembles this:

6am Wake and 7oz bottle
7am solid meal
8am nap for 30 mins
12pm 7oz bottle
1pm Solid Lunch
1:30 nap 1 and half hour
4:30 Solids
6:30 Bath, 7 oz bottle, massage
7pm Bed

Sleeps thorugh til 6 am usualy although sometimes 5am

Oh forgot to say we are now doing Baby Lead Weaning as ds has recently refused to eat off a spoon so the amount of solids he eats varies and at the minute is rather small as the BLW has only just started this week. He's still getting used to different textures and plays with his food a lot!

<<waves at pn thread buddies!>>

Cerys got herself into a routine quite early which is strange as I've always been a bit routine-less!! But heres a VERY ROUGH idea of our day... (every single time on this list should have a big ISH after it!).

7-8am wakes up, has b'fast made up with around 5 ozs milk of which she drinks the remaining milk.

A nap or two at some point (varies according to how tired she is, what we've been doing etc). Generally only about half an hour but sometimes she has two before lunchtime comes around.

12-1 Fruit puree and a yoghurt with either water or weak squash.

Possibly a nap (usually the longer one of an hour or two).

2-3 Bottle (about 5ozs) and some finger food like those baby teething biscuits or something. Sometimes she guzzles all the milk, sometimes she just has an ounce or two.

4.30-5 Dinner with water or weak squash (no pudding or she's not hungry enough for her bedtime bottle).

6.30-7 Bedtime routine (bath every other day - long story as to why!). About 6 ozs of milk, again varied intake. We put her in her gro-bag before her bottle as she often falls asleep on it . She's normally asleep by 7-7.30

She used to have a couple more naps in the afternoon but she's not been having them lately unless we're in the car. She's always been an amazing sleeper. I was previously only doing two meals a day but she seems to have gone off her milk whether its offered before a meal, after a meal or inbetween a meal. I tried follow on milk but with catastrophic consequences (yet another long story!) so we went back to normal milk. I still worry she's not getting enough and should really get her weighed!

I'm sure many will tell you there's no right or wrong and you've just got to go by trial and error. MN is great for getting ideas of what to try isn't it and great to find out what others are doing I'll keep watching this thread though as I'm sure we've got another shift in patterns coming up...

PLP xxx

Hmm, looking at this we are putting DS to bed way later than other folk. Used to be 7.30, but it's shifted to 8ish now as we are trying to eat together at 6/6.30 with wind down for his bed and final bf after.

At present days vary, but roughly:
6/7ish wake, bf
hour later, food (not taking much at mo)
9.30ish nap for 1 hour
bf either before or after, depending...
12/12.30 lunch (usually homemade - remains of whatever he had for night before) and pudding (yog/fruit puree or bit of fruit)
nap anytime between 2.30 or (ulp!) 4.30 for around 1-1.5 hours. Think this varies as he's only recently stopped having after lunch nap, so only 2 naps now rather than 3.
6/6.30 evening food/pudding
wind down, then final bf before sleep at 8.

Sometimes he's still awake after this, in which case DH reads couple of books and gets him off to sleep.

Think I may try earlier food & bed, but at back of mind am thinking about what will happen when I go back to PT work and he's at nursery until 5.30...

numpty we actually put ds to bed at 8 or 830 as suits us but used 7-7 routine as an analogy as everyone else seems to. we're all happy - dh gets to see him and spend some quality time and he doesn't wake till 830am. you can bring forward when need to (plan in millpond sleep book)
you are not alone!

My ds is 9 months next week and our day goes something like this:

wakes up about 6ish and bf then have breakfast, normally weetabix with fruit or toast.

Nap at 8am till about 9am (sometimes a bit longer if I'm lucky!)

10am small bf

12 lunch, normally meat or fish with veg and fruit or yog for dessert

1pm bf then normally has an afternoon nap for anything from 30 mins to an hour (longer if morning nap not long or falls asleep in car)

4.30pm bf

5pm dinner, fingerfood, veg fruit or toast

6.30pm another bf then bed

sometimes will wake in the night for a feed but trying to discourage this!

Not sure when he will start having less milk, I always offer and he never refuses! Does anyone know when bf babies start to need less feeds? Its hard to know how much milk he is getting so I don't want to drop a feed just yet...

Good to read all this - particularly about how many other babies have early naps in morning. This morning DS woke at 8 (he'd woken in night and I'd fed him to sleep). However he was tired again by 9.30, seems incredible that he can be tired after only hour or so being awake... also his afternoon nap similar to most other babies (except for when disturbed, as with today...)

I was at bf support group today and asked about babies dropping feeds, as I'm worried my supply is dwindling (finding it v hard to express milk for DS'S morning cereal). Was told that babies tend to become more distracted/not want to feed (ie bobbing on and off breast, looking around etc) and as a result milk supply for that feed will reduce. helips - I'd reckon just offer bf when convenient to you, or if obvious demand. If he starts to become distracted, he may be full from solids. Think this is what's happening with DS's evening feed - a shame, as I'd rather keep this one and drop one of the daytime feeds instead.

Back to the drawing board again...

Yes, I find ds is easily distracted and goes on and off the breast but I still offer both at each feed regardless of how much he has off the first boob. Not sure if this is the right thing to do but I do it anyway! He never really demands my boob, I just offer it at the same times as I've always done and he never refuses. Just wondering when I should drop a feed, don't want to do it too soon for him then to start waking in the night.

Helips - I was trying to get my DD (8 months) to be a bit more interested in solids. My old-school HV suggested I drop her mid-morning milk. I was a bit nervous, as like you she doesn't demand but didn't ever refuse. So we gave it a go and she doesn't seem to have noticed and her weight gain has continued to be fine. Her night waking didn't increase, but she doesn't sleep through either way.

ok here's our day - approximate timings

dd2 is 9mo

wake - anywhere between 5.30and 6.30 7oz milk
breakfast - porridge at 7.30
9am ish - more milk - up to 7oz
nap for anywhere up to an hour but mostly 30min
12pm lunch - savory then pudding
1pm sleep for up to 1 hr 30min
4pm more milk - 4oz
5pm dinner - again savory and pudding
7pm milk - generally 7oz but tonight 11oz!

she then may or may not be up during the night and if she is up after 12am then i give her milk to go back quickly - otherwise she doesn't settle well.

Thanks Mooki, I will give that a go. Ds doesn't have that much mid morning anyway so maybe he won't miss that feed, fingers crossed!

My DD is 8.5 months today. Here is her routine.

Wakes anything from 7.30 to 8.30am
8.30am 5-6oz bottle followed by breakie (either 1/2 wheatabix and mashed banana or yoghurt with fruit - about 3/4 large jar in quantity). Then perhaps 5/6 raisins which she feeds herself.

11am finger food (usually a breadstick or dried pear or rusk).

12.30 5-6oz milk
followed by lunch (usually mummy made chicken casserole with pasta stars or cheesy pasta bake with brocolli or similar plus either pureed fruit or fromage frais.

4.30 5-6oz milk
5.00 tea. Usually 3/4 large jar of Hipp or Mums' Own followed by pureed fruit (organix pot usually).

7.30 some form of finger food when we have our dinner (cheese straw is the cuurent popular choice or a chunk of cheddar.

8.00 Bath and 4-5 oz milk

8.30 bed and sleeps through.

Forgot to mention naps. Just this week she has gone down from 3 naps to two naps a day. She has between 25 -35 mins at around 12.00 (she is asleep now) and then from 3.45-4.15). Next nap then co-incides nicely with bed time.

ocasionally she will surprise us and have over an hour as an afternoon nap but that's usually when we;ve been out and she's had lots of fresh air.

My day with DD2:

7/7.30am - awake

8am 7oz bottle and some cereal

9/9.30am - 2 hour nap

12pm - 7oz bottle and dinner

1ish - play/go out for walk or visit

3/4pm - nap for 45 mins

5 - 5 oz bottle (loves her milk) and tea

7pm bed - 8 oz bottle (as I said LOVES her milk!)

Sleeps through 12 hours.

this is great thanks ladies

i also feel we're doing it all wrong mooki but actually from reading this i don't feel as bad - a lot of babies are going 3and half to 4 hours between their am and lunchtime naps, and some have am and pm naps rather than lunchtime nap.

when all your RL friends are doing gina style routines (strict or otherwise) with nap at 915-10 and then 1230 to 230 you feel like a bit of a failure!

feel much happier now
hurrah for MN