Help!!!! How do you manage a routine for a BF on demand DC2 who feeds to sleep??

[anynamesleft]

Hi,

DS1 is 5yo and when DS2 came along 5 months ago I realised how different it is trying to establish a routine / pattern for siblings than for DS1. With him we made a big effort to have proper naps, predictable feeds and help him self settle to sleep [smug emoticon!}

However ..... I'm finding it impossible to manage this with DS2 who has ended up being fed on demand, napping when he falls asleep (usually after a feed or in the pram when I'm on the school run) and cluster (comfort?) feeding in the evening from 7-9/10 when he'll finally go to sleep.

He's doing pretty well and usually only waking once or twice in the night BUT I'm concerned he's not getting enough sleep during the day, that 'feeding to sleep' will come back to bite us! and really and truly would like some of our evenings back.

Any ideas? How do you fit regular feeds / naps around the school day?? Is there such a thing as a 'gentle' routine that works well for babies used to feeding on demand??

Do you want to stop feeding him to sleep? Sorry it's not clear from your post what exactly you are looking for? You're probably into some form of routine already I would imagine. We sort of fell into one around 5 months I think.you just need to avoid him falling asleep on the school run, so aim for a nap after lunch when starts on solids. DS2 has a nap around 9/9.30, so when we get back from school run and then around 1.30pm, both an hour each.

Is he happy and settle well once fed?
If so I don't really see it as a problem.

Of naps do you put him in the same place? I'm not sure how you can stop him sleeping on the school run either as my DD how ever much she has slept will always fall asleep in the car/pushchair

You could be me!! Experiencing the same thing with my DS aged 4 and DD aged 6m. I shall watch this thread with interest!

And me! DS is 4 and DD IS 7 months. I'm watching...

DD1 is almost 3 & DD2 is 5 months next week.

We don't have the school run but we do have other places to take DD1 almost every other day. TBH it's been a bit of a nightmare until a couple of weeks ago when DD2 got a bit better at napping - or more likely, I worked out how long she can stay awake for (roughly 2hrs 10m), and we got a good consistent nap-time routine going meaning I can get her down even when DD1 is here "helping"

We kind of did the baby whisperer thing early in & she now feeds every 4hrs ish (7.11.3.6:30) could you try to get her feeding a bit more regularly to fit in with your school rub duties?

I've had problems with night time waking/feeds & have found the babysleepanswers site to be really helpful. I'm only feeding once during the night now which is ALOT better than a week or two ago!