Mommy Milk Monday 6/22

[cougarette]

Jun 27, 2015 12:10:11 GMT -5 wimcgrath said:

We need to stop nursing to sleep and establish a good nap routine as well. Thanks for those of you who shared yours!
Question- I read in the formula thread that most of them are dropping to 4-5 bottles a day... How many times is your LO currently eating? We're at about 7 times a day, roughly every 3 hours and then two closer together before bedtime. I know formula keeps them fuller longer, but at what point should DD be eating more at one session and space them out more?

We've been at 7 times a day for weeks

[seamonster]

We've dropped down to 6 or 7 feeds a day. This weekend is an exception and I'm a very grumpy mama from falling asleep nursing on the couch all night long (every time I go to put him down he wakes up hungry. I hate growth spurts). He eats every 2 to 3 hours on the weekend. During the week he gets up once at night, then eats before we leave, 3 or 4 bottles at daycare, then we come home and nurse and nurse to sleep (I count the 2 evening as one because they're an hour apart).

He's still doing most naps at home on me. The rest are in the car or swing. Can't catch the drowsy but awake most of the time and when we do he's awake as soon as you put him down. So frustrating that his states are awake, asleep, upset because he's tired. He's better at daycare where he can't nurse to sleep, but there they let him sleep in a rnp because he's awake as soon as you put him in the crib. It's like he's afraid to miss out on anything. He sleeps fine in his crib at night once he's settled. Must keep fighting the sleep fight.

[lilyelayne]

Jun 27, 2015 12:10:11 GMT -5 wimcgrath said:

We need to stop nursing to sleep and establish a good nap routine as well. Thanks for those of you who shared yours!
Question- I read in the formula thread that most of them are dropping to 4-5 bottles a day... How many times is your LO currently eating? We're at about 7 times a day, roughly every 3 hours and then two closer together before bedtime. I know formula keeps them fuller longer, but at what point should DD be eating more at one session and space them out more?

Tl;dr- depends. Probably closer to a year.

I think it varies a lot depending on the baby, but most BF babies keep the same routine from 3-4 mo until they're eating a decent amount of solids (1 years+?). Breast milk digests very quickly & goes up in calories as they get older, so what they eat (the amount of BM) really doesn't change until they get another source of calories. Whereas formula is same amount of calories & digests slower, so formula consumption must increase in volume to meet caloric needs therefore feeding space out to give LO time to digest each bottle.

Solid food is pretty low in calories compared to BM/formula which is why it's often recommended to give solids after bottle/nursing session since solids are for learning more than nutrition at this point (caveat being if your pedi tells you differently or you don't supplement iron to EBF baby after 6 months, since BM runs out).

[wimcgrath]

Thanks for the input, ladies. lilyelayne you are a wealth of knowledge!