A routine for weaning

[blushingmare]

DD is 25 wo today, so weaning is just around the corner and we're planning to do BLW. So far I have been pretty lacking in any kind of routine with her - breastfeed on demand and just sleep when she's sleepy for as long as she will. I seem to be a bit aversive to any kind of routine, because when I'm thinking about how I'm going to "do" weaning, my mind is boggling a bit with how I'm going to fit it all it in [bconfused] I mean, I know to start with I need to give her bf around an hour before solids so she's not hungry and frustrated, but she'll often be sleeping then, and then she wants a bf when she wakes up.

As an example of what I mean, our mornings tend to look something like this:
6:30 - she wakes up & DH ignores her cooing until she starts to get cross gets her up and changes her nappy
sometime between 7 & 7:30 (depending on when DH has got her up) - BF, then a bit of playtime
8 - put down for nap (can take 20-30 mins to settle, but that's another thread)
Around 9 - get her dressed, I faff around for a bit putting on washing, clearing up the house a bit, by which time it can easily be 10 ish and she wants another bf. If she hasn't had a good first nap, she'll often have a nap now instead/aswell.

So where's sitting down in the highchair and having solids breakfast going to fit into that....

Then we might go out in the pram or something and she'll fall asleep towards the end of the morning, and that might be for a couple of hours (if we're lucky) after which she'll wake up desperate for a bf, so again, when should I have given her lunch!!

I know this sounds like I'm over complicating things in my head, but I can see me getting to the end of the day and realising [bshock] I haven't given her any solid meals all day!!

Am I going to have to smarten up my act a bit, or are there other similarly unroutiney people out there who have managed to slot 3 meals into the day without too many problems? And if so - can you give me a rough idea of your day?!

I would just start with offering her bits of whatever you or dh are having if she's awake. If he's asleep for example at breakfast then it doesn't really matter. You can offer some form of snack anytime you want anyway

So might go:

Bf
Few spoons of porridge, chunk of banana
Miss lunch as asleep
Wake from sleep, bf, offer snack after a bit..

Don't worry about the whole feeding an hour before etc

I used to feed milk when awake, breakfast, then offer milk again before nap

I would try to feed before first nap though. You say 8am nap is hard to put down from, if she only gets up at 7/7.30 it's prob a tad early. So maybe bf, then around 8 offer breakfast, then put down for a nap after ( 8.45/9 ish) might lead to longer am nap of hour, and gradually help you get a long after lunch nap

We had no routine, and continued with no routine through weaning, whenever we ate, she sat in the high chair or whatever and was offered some of what we had (or similar). We didn't worry about when bf was offered or anything like that, just offered food.

Worked very well.

Hi. You sound exactly like us lol! As above post really. I have continued to bf on demand and whenever I'm eating I'll give dd some. If its 10 mins after i have just bf her then so be it. Some days as we are very busy and out and about she might have a chew on my sandwich that i grab on the go and that's it for solids.
It will all fall into place. You have done so well being led by your baby to date. Don't change now!
Dd is now 8 months and starting to eat more and more of what i give her regardless of when i last fed her or what time of day it is.

If it works for you to have no routine then go with it - no one says you have to! I'll share ours just so you can see how it might fit in, but there's no one 'right' way to do things. You might find that as she starts joining in with meals that a routine of sorts develops. But, then again, you might not, and that's fine too.

So we usually do something like:

7am up, bf, bit of a play
8am breakfast
9.30 nap
11am wake, bf
Noon lunch
2pm nap
3.30pm wake, bf
5pm dinner
6pm bath, pyjamas, stories etc.
6.45pm bf
7pm bedtime

There's a fair bit of leeway with this if we have other stuff on and I just have this as a framework to bear in mind and follow her cues. It works for us, though, and I hope it helps to read it even if you completely disregard the whole routine thang!