Routine required for 8 month old

[Freddiecat]

Can anyone recommend a sleep/feeding routine for an 8 month old baby? We are currently following (very loosely) Gina Ford's routine but DD is not very good at sleeping during the day. As a consequence she is often tired and therefore doesn't eat as well as she should during the day. She is not gaining much weight and is the same weight now as she was in January.

Currently she has:
7am - breastfeed
8am - breakfast
9ish - sleep for 45 mins
11:30am - lunch
12:15-ish - sleep for 45 mins
2:30pm - breastfeed
4ish - sleep for 30 mins
5pm - tea
6:30pm - breastfeed
7pm - bed

[sacha3taylor]

Does she just have a breastfeed in the morning, or does she have breakfast as well?

[sacha3taylor]

sorruy, When I kooked the first time the breakfast line was missing!!!!!!!!!

[vict17]

I think that sounds about right. I'm sure that's what ds was doing at that age

[sacha3taylor]

I know it isn't much help but this is similar to my 10 month old ds. He only has one long nap from around 11 - 12.30 and I'm not breast feeding anymore, so he has a cup of milk with each meal. Have you spoken to your health visitor?

[moondog]

Blimey fc! I'd be delighted if my 8 mth old ds had three naps a day! Sounds alright to me.

[hermykne]

freddiecat my ds is 7 1/2mths and that pretty similar, except he is going a bit longer at noon 'ish and sometimes doenst need the afternoon nap.
i followed the same rouitine with my dd and it was over 1 before hse really did the good lunchtime nap of 2 hrs. so it will come round

[decmum]

My experience was the same as hermykne...as they become more active the lunchtime nap seems to settle down. I think Gina mentions the 45 min wake up...something about the fact that after 45 mins babies have finished their deep deep sleep and fall in to a lighter sleep phase...trick is to get them through that. Is the room pitch black because this helps...also (and I hate to mention it) but we used a dummy and popping this in at this stage seemed to help. Still wasn't a guaranteed solution.

As for weight gain...I wouldn't worry...if she doesn't end up having much lunch maybe give her a little snack after her milk at 2.30.

Anyway...if none of that helps then tell yourself it's the ultimately compliment...mummy is so great she just can't wait to see you again...by the time she's walking she'll sleep.

[Freddiecat]

Thanks all - I think the 45 minute thing is the key really. She's actually been a bit better this last week. My main concern was the fact that her weight gain is so poor. I took her a month ago and she was 2oz LIGHTER than a month previously and have been taking her every week and she's only really put on an ounce a week. But her development is spot on.

It's just odd sometimes when baby 2 is so different from baby 1!

[hermykne]

freddiecat
my ds is losing weight too but i think its because he is now more active, still breastfed but also his appetite is a little less than at 5 1/2mths, i think he is now satisfied with what he gets, it will prob pick up again.