4 months, bf and no daytime routine...very different each day

[snowchick1977]

Dd is 4 months old. Ebf until 10 weeks and now has a bottle of formula before bed.

The nights are pretty good...bath at 8, bottle and asleep for 9. She wakes at 3, 5 and 7 to feed and then goes back to sleep until 9. Occasionally she also feeds at 1am also.

My query is that the nights seem to follow a pattern, but the days are all over the place.

Today she fed at 10, 12, 2, 4 and is feeding as I type. Yesterday she fed only at 11, 3 and 5.30.

Today we have been at home all day, whereas yesterday we were on the go all day and she slept for ages in the car etc.

I find its harder to get her to space out feeds when we are at home, but whenever we are out she feeds a lot lot less....is this just because she is more distracted do you think.

Is anyone breastfeeding a 4 month old and into a consistent daytime feeding routine?

I know it is feeding on demand, but id have thought by now i would see a pattern. All my bottle feeding friends know when their babies are fed and can plan around this.

I'm at 7mo and still no routine. DD demands more if we do nothing at home, something like every 2-3 hours. She demands a lot less if we go out, sometimes up to 4-5 hours. The distraction makes her forget her milk I think. Also if I'm heading out I always offer a feed to her first.

Do you like a routine? The reason most ff mums have is because they aim to give x number of bottles in y number of hours. And also they want a bottle just before bed. BF is so easy that I just do it whenever DD whines for food. If you want, at 4mo, you could easily feed on a fixed routine. Just offer a boob every 3 hours, or 10, 12, 2, 4 like what you had today.

And as for the planning to go out. They need to know how many bottles to bring. We don't. And I sort of plan as well. Like it's 1.5 hour since she's fed and we are going out, let's see if she will take a feed. Or it's 4 hour since last feed and the cake is yummy here. Let's have a coffee and feed DD.

My 4 mo is very similar to yours- every day is different and depends on where we are or if we are at home all day. He feeds if he's bored and I'm too tired to entertain . When we are out and about there is less feeding. Also has good routine at night but still feeds every 3 hours at night. I also crave a bit of routine but pp is right- we don't really need it as we don't have to plan for every feed .

sounds normal, did'nt really have a routine until about 7 months (ds is now 11 mnths).......and the routine we have sometimes goes out the window!

DD is 3 months and I handle daytime feeds in a very similar way to lilham - if it's been more than 2 hours since a feed and we're heading out I will try and get her to feed even though she's not strictly "due" one, or build in a stop off/tea and cake into the outing. I am not embarrassed about feeding in public mind you. She tanks up in the evening - after 5pm it is a free for all. The beauty of BFing is that you are not really inconvenienced by the lack of routine, whereas running out of bottles when you are out and about is a PITA.

My DD is 5 months old, ebf, and the only routine is that she goes to bed around 19.00-19.30 and sleeps for 12 hours (with frequent feeds during the night!). During the day sometimes she sleeps in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes neither, sometimes both. Feeds are all over the place as well. She seemed to do a could of weeks of constant feeding recently, especially during the night (4 month growth spurt?).

Mine is 16 weeks ebf and feeds to a routine of sorts. This is it at the moment.

Basically he feeds when we wake at around 7.30-8am, then he has a play before feeding an hour and a half later (before his first nap of the day).

He naps for around 45 -75 mins. Then he is up and active for another hour and a half and then he feeds again and sleeps again for another 45-75 mins.

It continues like this until around 4-5pm when he wants to feed more, he likes to snack little and often around this time. He can get a bit unsettled around then as well, so I usually take him out in the buggy/car for a quick catnap. Sometimes I walk him feeding in a sling if he wont settle for cat nap as he can be quite hungry around this time and the walk/feed settles him. Once he has had a catnap I try to wake him before 6pm so it wont disrupt his 7.30 bedtime.

Not a strict routine but I can plan stuff around it. But I do have to actively settle him for daytime naps. The feeding before hand does make him drowsy but I do need to pat/shush/ rock him to sleep, although it only takes a few minutes to settle him down.

Oh forgot to mention when we are out we still follow this routine. He is up and about, looking around etc for an hour and a half and then I feed him and put him to sleep in his pram/car seat.

Working out the times I guess I feed him every 2 - 3 hours during the day and then more often in the late afternoon. He does feed quickly now though, usually only takes 5 minutes.