Weaning and sleeping - still completely confused!! Now what?

[milkmoustache]

I've posted recently about all this, but I'm still confused. In brief, DD has started waking twice nightly to feed having previously gone for ages with just one feed, and she had even managed 12 hours a couple of times, but solids seems to have changed everything.

She is 25 weeks now, and has 5 meals a day (plus two at night), feeds 1 and 5 are just breast, and at the others she finishes 5 cubes of fruit or veg, generally I add 1 dsp of baby rice to her last feed with the dregs of my expressed milk. She is pretty happy with the whole concept of eating, though we haven't really managed to get her drinking out of a cup yet. With every solid meal she has both breasts as well, so in theory
she should be nice and full.

If as some have suggested, she is getting mainly bulk and different tastes from her solids, how can I get extra calories into her? My own supply is definitely going down, so I just can't add an extra milk feed from me, so I guess formula is the way forward.
But I'm now more confused: Should I stop one of the solid feeds and replace it with a formula and baby rice combo OR should I add formula to all her existing solid foods OR should I offer a bottle of formula to see if she's interested? (The bottle idea seems counter-intuitive to me as I am trying to get her to accept the idea that food is not just liquid, but that's probably me being daft).

Anyone who can help? Please??

The thing is, DD's sleep was absolutely brilliant and predictable UNTIL we started the solids which makes me think that there has to be a link between eating and sleeping. (And I may be a wimp but I dread the thought of sleep training, even though I've heard it works...)

I busted a gut trying to get more calories into dd, in just this sort of situation. All it did was make us both stressed. Sleep training worked though.

If you're considering giving her formula, could you give her a bottle at one of the night feeds? Then you can gradually reduce the amount of milk powder you put in (same amount of water). When she's going back to sleep after just a bit of water you know she's not waking from hunger.

The thing is, their sleep changes at about the same time you introduce solids and the two aren't necessarily connected. Its the time when they get more aware of the world and realise they want to play with you at 2am.

i think your surposed to offer a bottle of formula or breast milk after every solid feed as i drink. they say never give juices as i drink until 1 yr old (not saying you do) and milk should be there only drink. so giving a milk feed after each meal is prob the best thing to do.

Have you tried using breast/formula mixed with liga or rusks as a last feed? it is comforting, and you are giving the calories of milk combined with the taste and bulk of a food.
Apart from that my only suggestion would be gentle pick-up put-down training, rather that "let them cry" training at night.
PS I am going to start that with dd this week to get her out of her one wakeup a night and she is 24 wks tomorrow.

My DS is 29 weeks old and only started solids about 4 weeks ago. Until he started solids he had begun to wake up again at around 5am and still needed a feed at 11pm. I had to top up with formula at end of day as he was hungry and I couldn't keep up with him. After he stared solids, he dropped the 5am feed, but still seemed to need the 11pm feed until a few days ago.

I think it's important that they still get approx 20oz of milk (in either food or as milk) at this age. Also, my doctor said to ensure that there is either cereal, potatoe, rice or pasta with each meal ... eg, 3 tbls of potatoe and 3 of veg.

FWIW, here's our routine.
7am - 8am Breakfast ... breastfeed (my guess is approx 6 - 8 oz) followed by half a bannana or small bowl of oatmeal cereal and pureed fruit (1 or 2 cubes)
11.30am - Lunch. 2oz of breastmilk followed by veg and potatoe or baby rice (now includes stuff like lentils, cauli cheese)
2.30 - 3pm - 4 - 6 oz of breastmilk
5.30 - tea - baby rice and veg or fruit
7.30is - breastfeed (my guess is approx 6 oz)

My supply is down on what is was a few weeks ago too. I don't think he is getting as much ... I know what he gets during the day as nanny feeds him ebm while I'm at work. I'm trying to make food with sauces now and will try yoghurt too.

HTH, it's hard work when they start waking up again. It might not be hunger but I'd give her a week or 2 to build up before you start sleep training. Also, FYI, my doctor told me to treat pureed fruit on it's owan as a "snack", rather than a meal. (Assume this is because there isn't much to fill baby up?)

Meant to say, we are cutting back milk at lunch as by the time he has protein lunch he needs to stop having milk at same time as milk reduces iron absoption. Recommended to have juice or water by doctor.