12-week-old and still no feeding schedule - normal?

[mpops]

I'd really appreciate some advice as my HV is all kinds of useless.

Our 12-week-old DD is mixed-fed. Mostly breastfed with some top-up formula twice or three times a day. All in all I feed her about 7-8 times a day but, although some days it's a standard every-two/three-hours schedule, mostly it's really not set at all. She'll be hungry any old time. She sleeps pretty well during the night (wakes up twice between 8pm and 8am) but I'm not sure if during the day I should be trying to stick to a more defined schedule no matter what (no matter if she seems hungry or cries, that is!). Right now I'm vaguely trying to make it to 2/3 hour stretches but if she seems upset I feed her.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or whether I should just relax and go with my baby's 'schedule'. It's just that all the books/websites seem to suggest that by 3 months babies are settled and have a feeding/sleeping schedule. Have I messed DD up by feeding on demand?

I never had a schedule - it worked out fine for all of us. I would say that by feeding on demand you are doing the best possible for your baby

best possible feeding PATTERN for your baby, sorry

i would relax and go with it! she knows when she is hungry :)

God no, much easier to just feed them when they are hungry - that's the best thing about breastfeeding. If you were bottlefeeding and had to be able to plan 30 minutes in advance of when she needs a feed to make a bottle up then it would probably be easier for you to schedule feeds.

Oh, and I found with my ds that once his naps became more predictable (about 4/5 months iirc) his feeds became more predictable, because he fed before and after every sleep.

I'd say feed in demand if you can live with it. I'm also topping up feeds and think giving extra BFs in between is helping to maintain the BFing.

Thanks very much for your replies! It's really hard to figure out what, if anything, is wrong or whether this is all normal. Really glad I asked now!