Question re feed routine, now food is on the menu

[123456kent]

We’ve always had quite a haphazard routine in that my baby certainly does not adhere to set times of the day. She wakes between 5-7.30am, she naps anything from 30mins to 2 hours, so there is no ‘normal day’ - nothing happens at a set time each day, except bedtime, which is usually at 7.30pm there or thereabouts.
Now I’m giving her solids that is proving to be problematic as I can’t work out when I’m supposed to give her meals.
I had planned to give her food one hour after each milk feed(breast) but this doesn’t work.
For example, if she wakes at 5am I breastfeed her in the hope that she will go back to sleep. Often she doesn’t. So i wait until she’s ready to go back to sleep and we both nap (she’s up throughout the night too - I need to catch up somewhere) then when we wake from that nap do I give breakfast or breast?
Another example is today she had a 2 hour nap from 11.30-1.30pm, when she wakes do I give lunch or breast?
Please can I have some advice re schedules/timings for feeds to allow her to consume maximum food (and maybe sleep better at night!!) and not deprive her of important milk feeds

When I started weaning DS (now 10mo) I just fed him when I was eating, when he was in the mood for it. If not, no biggy. As he’s gotten older he’s naturally started dropping milk (he’s formula fed) and increasing the amount of solids he takes and has started putting himself into a routine. I don’t think that you can force a routine on a baby, esp at 6mo, cos they just don’t have a clue what’s going on

Can you not breastfeed on wake up and then offer solids an hour later?

To be honest if you want better night sleep then a rough routine will probably help. I would try getting up at 7ish every day regardless.

You don't say how old but I'm assuming 6 months ish if you are just starting weaning?

I wouldn't worry too much about 'meals' at this point as they eat so little at this stage of weaning anyway. See giving food as an activity and something for her to have a play with rather than a milk replacement.

I would just carry on breastfeeding as normal for the time being and gradually as she starts to eat more she will probably start reducing her breastfeeds any way.

Don't assume weaning will mean better sleep, my DD was a good eater right from the word go but didn't sleep through reliably until she was around 1 year old.

What probably will help sleep is starting to develop some kind of routine during the day, even if it is a very loose one and when your DD is eating more you will be able to fit proper mealtimes into this as well.

But wake up is so varied.
So she makes noises at 5am,I feed her. 50% of the time she goes back to sleep. i’ll then breakfast feed her when she wakes again 1-2 hours later.
50% of the time that’s her awake, I’m not going downstairs to make breakfast at 6am..... Am I?! Surely that’s just silly. We have nowhere to be, nothing to do, OH doesn’t get home for another 13 hours after that! Such a long day.
And she very, very rarely sleeps past 7am, but if she did I wouldn’t be waking her, I’d be sleeping myself.
I haven’t slept in 6 months! I catch my zzzz’s where I can.
I’m torn between being relaxed re food routine as one PP says, and stricter as the other PP says!

Sorry, yes, she is 6 months and 1 week.
We do have a “routine” kind of, it’s just not time of day based. I.e wake, feed, play etc, 2 hours later, nap, wake, feed etc. I just have no control over what time of day these things happen, she is a law unto herself there!
Which is making breakfast/lunch/dinner difficult

It's up to you, if what you're doing now is working for you then carry on.

We've been fairly fluid with our baby (now a 1 year old). She wakes when she wakes and naps when she's tired. For weaning I stuck to a rough 'breakfast/lunch/dinner' but introduced it gently.

We started with breakfast first, so as soon as she woke up she'd have water and baby porridge, she'd have a formula (I stopped BF at 6 months) for a nap mid morning. I then introduced dinner. Slowly we added in snacks and a lunch (we go out every day so was always an easy packed lunch of a sandwich or cream cheese and crackers with a side of fruit....and she'd nibble from my lunch). Mid afternoon she'd have another formula and then she'd have one before bed. It just comes naturally and at your baby's pace. We did a mix of BLW and spoon feeding and it's worked great.

Best of luck!

Personally I would chill out and go with the flow, but that’s how I am in general. So say you’re grabbing breakfast, just share a bit of your toast. Plonk it in front of her and let her have a play. It’s much more than just eating, she’s learning about a whole new world of stuff, smells, tastes, textures, how to get that stuff from the tray and into her belly!

You have exactly the sort of non-routine that I have.

My son is 8m and we have breakfast around 8, after breast. But if he wakes silly early it's boob, nap and then breakfast so breakfast was at 10am on Sunday.

Lunch is whenever it can be squeezed in - today it was at 2.30pm after his nap, he was breastfed at 1.30 before he went down.

Tea is normally around 5, but sometimes he's tired and goes to bed/nap at 5 and tea is whenever he wakes.

At first I did the 'one hour after milk' thing but soon found it very restricting so went with 'whenever he's awake, not starving and we've got time' instead.

Just do whatever works!

Actually I think we are all kind of saying the same thing, that until 6 months a routine can be a bit pointless for a lot of babies, but around six months is about the right time where you can start trying to put something in place and it might actually have an affect.

If I remember correctly my dd was still having 3 naps a day at 6 months. What time these actually happened during the day would change depending on what time she woke up in the morning but if she didn't get 3 naps in then she definitely slept worse that night, so I would make an effort to make sure all 3 naps happened, even if one of them was in the car on the way to the supermarket.

Around that time we started putting her up to bed on her own in the evening rather than being downstairs with us in the evening. So she had a bath at 6pm and was in bed for 6.30 - 6.45, another little piece of the 'routine' slotting into place.

Until she was about 9 months old she didn't have set meal times but if she was awake whilst we were eating we would give her a bit of what we were having. I would give her other things to try throughout the day, for example a yoghurt pouch, a carrot stick or an Ella's carrot puff. Eventually she was eating enough in one go that it was worth having 'mealtimes' for her.

It's just a case of trying different things out and reconsidering and readjusting until you find a routine that works for your baby and fits in with your life.

At this point it's more about tastes than consuming meals. I found when DSs eating picked up at about 8 months, our meals led us into a routine.

Your 5am feed sounds like a night feed to me albeit a late one. So when she's up 7ish then start your day at that point. As you need DD to be in good spirits to consider trying foods you'll end to give her a feed or part of one before you give food. Relax and enjoy, it all come together.

I found this part of weaning really annoying. I came to the conclusion that you can't really get into a set routine because DC's needs change all the time.

Just go with the flow - it doesn't really matter, as long as baby's getting fed. In a few months it'll all be a distant memory and it'll be solids all the way, with just a little milk on the side.