17 week old -no routine

[Partiallycloudy]

Hi all,
First time poster so please be gentle with me!

I have a 17 week old Daughter.
She has slept through the night since 6 weeks, and i mean all through the night. She goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up around 6.30....although this morning she didn't wake until 8.45!
During the day she only naps for 30 mins at a time, so nothing gets done around the house in this time!
We have no sleep schedule as such, i just put her down when she has been awake for 90mins or so.
We also have no feeding schedule....sometimes she goes 3 hours, sometimes 4....shes on 7oz now and was hoping she would start stretching the feeds out but as she wakes up so late if i left it 4 hours between feeds then she would only have 4 feeds a day!
This total lack of schedule is making things very stressful when we go out....i have no idea if she's gonna need a feed or not...i do take everything with me so she can have one but if i just want to pop out quickly I have to worry about her having a melt down cos she suddenly wants to be fed!

Do you think i should wake her for a feed earlier in the morning?

I honestly have no idea how to get her onto a regular schedule or routine....i don't expect everything to be at the same time everyday..just be nice to know that i have an hour or so before she's due another feed for example or for her to have at least one longish nap in the day!

any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

That sounds like a routine already

4 hrs is a very long time though, most adults don't go that long between drinks so I wouldn't suggests even longer. At that age mine fed every 2 hours in the day

well its just since another mum said her LO was going 5 hours between feeds....i kinda assumed that as their feeds increase the time between would increase. She's was doing 3 hours between feeds from newborn......

If she doesn't feed at all overnight, she is going to need to get all her calories in the day. That will probably involve 3hourly ish feeds.
Given you have a baby that sleeps through, why change anything?! Assuming they are not grumpy or miserable, sod the housework and go with it :)
If you want to go out and it's been 3 hours since they fed, you can always offer a bottle before they get cross :)
Before you know it, she will be 6 months and you'll be weaning which adds a natural routine to the day...

Please don't mess with it you've got a good thing going, do your housework while she naps of after bedtime. I would have sold my soul for a full night sleep every night. I don't think they tend to go more Tha 3 or 4 hours between feeds until much older i think ds was almost a year before he started having a breakfast, lunch and bed bottle before that he had about 7, 11.30, 3 and 7 roughly but also feeds about midnight and 4/5 am.

I think life with a baby is unpredictable regardless to what routine you have there will always be something that changes unless your going to let then cry for a feed until the correct time.

No 5 hours between feeds isn't normal. That would be like 3 bottles a day

Thanks everyone, i think cos she's so good at sleeping at night i feel like a bit of fraud! so i am obsessing over everything else. You have all put my mind at ease.
xx

DS fed about every 2-3 hours at that age. And one night feed. Look at the total amount of milk over 24 hours, but all babies are different so dont stress too much about it. If she's sleeping so well then she's presumably getting enough.

We did the EASY routine and it really worked for us. Eat, awake time, sleep, (you time!), and repeat! Look up routines online and then fiddle round with it to fit your baby. The times aren't always the same every day, but the rough routine is, and so you know when they will need their milk because it's right after the nap. I always took spare milk out with me to baby group etc, but going to the supermarket I didn't need to cos I went in his awake time after his feed.