When do you give last meal and last milk?

[gigi556]

Currently, we give DS1 8 months, dinner around 5-5:30 then a bath then breastfeed and then bed around 6:30-7. However, I'd like to switch it up and give him his breastfeed before the bath so that I can leave the rest of the bedtime routine to DP so I can hit the gym. At the minute I give dinner then hand him over to DP for bath, PJs book etc. Then we swap again. It's just not working that great even without wanting to go to the gym because I'm usually halfway through making dinner when I'm needed again upstairs and then DP has to finish making the dinner I started. Anyway, I digress.

I'm wondering if I breastfeed straight after dinner and before the bath if DS will actually want milk or if he'll be too full. Should I move his dinner a bit earlier like 4-4:30??

What has worked for you?

Sleepwise, he's been sleeping through until about 4-4:30am for a feed or sometimes straight through until 6:30 so I'm also worried if he'll start waking earlier in the night for milk if we move the feed around, but perhaps I'm over thinking it here. Now, I'm actually sleeping a decent amount again at night I'm desperate to get back to working out!!!

I think that if you BF straight after dinner, your DS won't take as full a feed and that coupled with the feed being quite early are bound to impact on his waking time in the morning. I think it'd be a lot to hope that he'd go 5:30pm to 6am without a feed.

Could you express or give formula just for the evening feed on the evenings you want to go to the gym?

Maybe I'm being optimistic... But I was really hoping to go to the gym or yoga class every evening... I've found in the past that it's actually easier to workout everyday as it's more embedded in the routine and you can't say to yourself, "I'll just go tomorrow". I know my body needs a rest and I'll have to ease back into exercise, but I thought I'd mix it up with other things like yoga.

I'm going away this weekend and have been expressing for that, but I don't think I can express on a daily basis and unless it's first thing in the morning, I can only get an ounce or two. I'd prefer not to give formula as I don't want to diminish my supply and I'd like to continue breastfeeding until DS is at least a year old.

So maybe we have to play around with it a bit or just expect to wake up earlier in the night...

I think you're being a bit optimistic. At that age, we had dinner around 5-5:30 and then our dd had her last feed at around 6:30-7pm after her bath. If you want time in the evenings, you'll likely need to cook and eat dinner with her and then offer a bottle of expressed milk or formula. At this age, replacing one feed a day shouldn't do much to your supply as long as she is feeding well the rest of the time (especially if you pump before bed or in the evening after you get back). But usually the time from about 7-12 months gets really tough for sleep, so I would personally probably just make the most of your daytimes, take walks with her or find ways to work out at home and go to the gym weekend mornings when your partner is home with her until things get a bit easier closer to 12 months (I bought a spin bike and ride that at home so that's an easy thing to do in the evenings or during nap times if you want). You'll have plenty of time for all of that eventually, but if it's a hassle now, I wouldn't force it if it's not working. Just give it a few more months and see how things are going.