feeding times in lead up to bedtime for 15wk old, what worked for you?

[NumNumMum]

I'm a bit all over the place in the lead up to bedtime, erratic nap times means feeds are affected. Trying to find some regularity for my 15wk old, any suggestions of what worked for you? Need a pool of knowledge! Please? This is a food AND sleep thing really, I suppose. At the moment there's no pattern. Need one! Am doing bf topped with 7 or 8oz formula each feed.

would you consider waking your baby up so he doesn't miss a feed time or not? If so, how often does he usually need to feed?

At this age baby should be able to go 4 hours with a 7-8 oz top up.

I used to make sure FunkyDude wakes to have a bottle no later than 7 am. then follow with a four hour routine, 11am, 3pm and bath at 6pm followed with a feed straigt after usually done by 6:30pm.

It worked for me when I started solids as I could initially combine first food at 11am with his bottle, later I dropped the 11am bottle (after breakfast at 7:30am was introduced)

Today his 10months and his routine is as follows:

6:30am bottle
7:30am breakfast
11:30am Lunch (goes up to 12:15pm)
2:30-3:00pm bottle
5:15pm (start dinner)
6:20pm bath
6:50pm bottle
7pm bed

(It sounds bad on paper, but it is his natural rythms, and it does deviate, sometimes he doesn't want the breakfast bottle, then I just put the milk on his breakfast cereal.)

HTH

My god that all sounds scary - I'd have to be awake and out of bed before 8.30am. (Wonders to oneself, does 8.30am actually exist?!)

hate to say this but if you want an evening routine then you may have to be out of bed earlier. I find dd is much more lovely and chattery etc in the mornings so actualy get better quality time with her. She is always up at 7am regardless of whether woke in the night(which she dosn't now) and work on a very similar routine for her as mentioned below. Scary really! DD is 15 weeks today btw. She is pretty tired by the evening and goes to sleep at 7 then wake her for a bottle at 10.30 and varies how much she takes. As for sleep, she gets tired after 2 hours and needs a nap. Has about 45-1hr at 8.45/9am then another longer sleep at 12 which can be anywhere from 1 hr to 2hrs. Depends really, then has a sleep in the afternoon at anywhere between 3.30 and 4.30 (start) and lasts for 30 mins - 1 hr depending on how long she slept at luch. Never let her have more than 3 hours sleep between 7 and 7. Sometimes evening are fractious but would rather have the eve with DH so was worth persevering.

Sometimes DD needs feeding earlier in the afternoon so feeds at 2/2.30 rather than 3 so move the eve feed forward to 5/5.30. She has half before her bath and half after. She takes 5/6 oz at day feeds but last night took a staggering 9 1/2 oz altogether between 5 and 7pm!

Have to say the fact you don't get a lie in sucks but it works for us. She's a much cheerier person in the AM so would rather see her for an extra hour 7-8am than screamiung her head off at 7-8pm in the evening. Means we get ot eat tea together too (me and DH that is)

Mum2funkydue is right, the routine helps when it comesto weaning as it's easier to move towards standard 3 meals a day at roughly reasonable times. Than again I'm a creature of habit and maybe dd has inherited this but there we are. Oh forgot to mention, dd would love to sleep longer in the AM but don't let her or then I'd have to keep her awake for hours during the day. She's so used to it now that she's stiring then anyway. The feeding, sleeping thing is linked. Means they don't get obver tired before a feed or end up being fed to sleep all the tiem.

Sorry for monster posts but there we are!

It took me ages to figure that not everything dd did was about food. The breakthrough came when she's cry and I went ot go and make up another bottle and came back to find she's settled herself to sleep and it was like the light went on "Oh, so that's what thjis is about! Since then dd usually settles herself to sleep pretty well without feeding but it has taken time (and for evening, lots of crying to start with. She's an angel now because she knows what's expected of her and in a way, she's relieved to be able to get to sleep at night!

Does that make any sense. Hope I don't sound like one of those annoying "my daughter is perfect" people. (she screamed from 4-7yesterday as has a cold and feeling poorly!) I'm a big believer in a good bedtime routine as will set you up for later in child's life. I personally was haunted by the idea that I didn;t want to end up on Dr Tanya's house of tiny tearaways in a few years time!

When my DD was 15 weeks I did a richard and judy feed at 5pm (bf usually lasted around 30-40mins) followed by bath at 6 and then another feed at 6.20ish (similar length feed as the previous one).This worked an absolute treat and I always stuck to it no matter how erratic sleeps and feeds had been during the rest of the day. I also then did the 10pm feed for a bit longer than 15 weeks but she never woke during the night with that pattern. I think it is called cluster feeding and it worked for me.

I found it was much easier to make sure my ds had feeds at the same time each day (at 15 weeks that was 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm). If he was napping when a feed was due then I wouldn't let him go more than half an hour past the feed time. It took a couple of weeks for his naps to fall into place iyswim, but it helped with the bedtime routine and it was also when he started sleeping through the night.

hth

Thanks ladies!
I think my boy must eat for England! He's had five 7 or 8oz bottles today and a last 4oz before bed,plus some bf!
he'll wake between 5, yes five- aaaagh!! and 7am. If it's before 6.30 I'll bf in bed and snooze till 7 then bf, if later get up for the day and bf then. Generally first bottle is about 9 which i guess will end up as breakfast. He then feeds about every 3 hours, 7oz or so. He can only stay awake happily for 2hrs at a time but will only sleep for 30 or 40mins at a go so feeds and sleeps cross over at some point mid afternoon and I never know when the last couple of feeds will end up. Wrote it down today-
7am bf
9am 30mins nap
9.30 8oz 1st milk
11.30 30mins nap
caught out at shops so bit late, 1pm bf+ 7oz 1sf milk
2.30 starving (apparently) 7oz 1st milk, maybe tired?
2.50 40mins nap
5.00 40mins nap
6.00 bf+7oz 2nd milk
bathtime
7.00 4oz 2nd milk
7.30 bed.
He always goes to sleep in his bed no trouble and usually sleeps through.
He doesn't seem to compare that differently, now I write it down! Am going to continue putting it on paper so I can see if there is more of a pattern than I'd realised.