General routine/weaning advice.

[ampersandand]

My ds is coming up to 7 months, after reading a lot of others posts I feel like I'm not really doing such a great job weaning him or having a day time routine in general. (We have a good bed time routine established though)

He's never slept or napped well and is always breastfed to sleep day and night time.

He sleeps from 7pm and wakes at 5am for a feed then will sleep until around 6:30/7am. (Has only just started to sleep through without 1am feed this week)

He has a nap about 2 hours after waking, naps vary from 10 minutes to 1 hour.

When he wakes I give him weetabix or porridge, he eats around 6 spoonfuls.

He's still breastfed on demand for the afternoon so I couldn't say how many feeds are normal. (Should I still be doing this?)

Sometime around 1/2/3pm he will fall asleep for an afternoon nap this one is generally between 30minutes - 1 hour.

Around 4ish I give him mashed sweet potato/banana (or some sort of other mashed fruit or veg) of which he doesn't eat a lot.

It is probably worth noting that he still naps on me on the feeding pillow I attempt his afternoon nap in the cot sometimes but he wakes up when I put him down and will take up to an hour to settle. I appreciate this is probably giving him mixed messages?

I would like to establish some sort of day time routine and would love to hear advice on how to improve what I'm doing and also what to do about weaning, is he eating enough or does it sound about right?

I'm extremely nervy about giving him finger food, he has no teeth yet and has choked twice before when giving him pieces of food.

I feel like I'm not doing enough.

Hello. My DS is about the same age as yours, although mix fed, not ebf. I'm no expert, but have a routine I'm quite happy with, so will divulge it!

Sleep from 7pm to 5am, when he always does a giant poo (aargh). Nappy change and resettle (if I'm lucky) until 7am ish.

Breast feed, followed by weetabix or porridge with fruit. DS takes 3 ice cubes of fruit with 1 weetabix, and normally eats most or all of it.

9:15 - 10am nap

11am breast feed

11:30 lunch, 6 ish ice cubes of puréed whatever we ate last night, Followed by a mini yoghurt

12-2 nap. He doesn't always sleep until 2, and if he doesn't, I let him have a 10 min doze on me in use afternoon

2pm breast feed

4pm breast feed

4:30 tea, about the same as lunch, but cut up fruit for pudding

6pm bath
6:30 bottle, then bed

10pm, bottle of ebm

The controversial bit is that I got him to take naps in his cot by doing controlled crying about a month ago. It only took 1 day, but it wasn't fun, and I know some people find it unacceptable.

I wouldn't worry too much about the amounts he's eating, in my experience (2nd child), the trick is to offer food and milk regularly so they can eat/drink what and when they want.

It really sounds to me like you're doing just fine. If the naps are bothering you, then work on getting him into his cot using a technique that suits you, but if you're happy with him sleeping on you and don't think it's causing problems, why change it?

Obviously, only don't worry about amounts of food if weight gain is good!

Just reread your post about putting him down for naps. I would decide if he naps on you or in his cot and stick with it. I know it's tricky though. Try putting him down awake for a nap, he may surprise you and get himself off to sleep.

It sounds like you are doing fine to me. For us a routine developed when we moved to three meals a day. Naps vary a bit in length and timing but meal times and bedtime give a bit more structure to the day.

Don't feel pressure to give finger foods, just keep doing what comes naturally to you. When you do move to finger foods you will be surprised at how quickly he takes to them. Some gagging is completely normal and just the way he learns to eat (I am guessing you mean gagging not choking as the latter means airway restriction).

A bit more consistency in napping may help. Try a mini-bedtime routine so sleeping bag, story, dark room and into cot and do every nap like this when you are at home.

DS1 is the same age. Naps 4 times a day and never more than 40 mins. Ive tried and tried to get him to nap longer but nothing has worked so I just go with it..... Our routine is:

6.15am wake and bottle (drinks about 4oz)
8am-8.30am - nap
8.30am - breakfast (porridge mixed with pureed fruit and buttered toast fingers)
10.30am-11am - nap
11am - bottle (drinks about 8oz)
12.30pm - lunch (something I've made and blended like chicken casserole/cauliflower cheese etc followed by banana yoghurt or mashed avocado)
1.30pm -2pm - nap
3pm - bottle (takes about 5oz)
3.30pm -4pm - nap
5pm - dinner (same as lunch)
6.30pm -bath & bottle (takes about 8oz)
7pm - bed

He's just dropped his 10.30pm bottle.

DS1 has no teeth either and I think you just have to bite the bullet a bit with the food. I was nervous at first but babies have a great gag reflex and just make sure you stay with him at all times.
And you should try ramping his food up a bit, adding meat, butter, cheese etc. Until I did that DS1 wasn't eating much. Now he loves food!! And up until 3 weeks ago was waking every hour at night (and had been for 2 months). Now he is sleeping through, almost happened overnight when I ramped his food up a notch.

Thank you for all your replies, it's good to hear I'm not doing as bad as I thought.

The only problem I have with him napping on me is that I don't have time to do much housework/have time to myself during the day.

I will as of tomorrow as suggested start implementing a routine for nap time in the afternoon in his cot and persevere with it!

As for the food, I agree ,I do need to introduce a more varied diet and it may well be that he eats more when I do.