Another Schedule Question, but Please Help! :)

My 11.5 month old son is basically off formula (we're mixing it with formula and whole milk) and usually naps 2X/day, but sometimes it is only one. I hate those one/day naps though, he's cranky by bed time!! ;) Before we started mixing his formula, he probably only drank 16-20 oz/day. We weaned him off the bottle about 2 months ago though and all he does is drink from a sippy cup, so if you're interested in moving her to the cup, just keep giving it to her. My son wasn't too interested in the beginning but finally he just decided he'd do it and that was that. Eventually she'll start drinking from it!

As far as eating, he eats about 4/day. Usually I give him a pretty big breakfast b/c he naps in what would be a normal snack time. Then he gets lunch, play time, and another nap. After he wakes up from that nap he usually gets a snack, then errands/play time and dinner. We do still give him a cup of milk before bed usually, but we eat kind of late, so sometimes we don't or he's just not interested in it.

Ideally, you do want her to stop drinking the formula so you can transition her easier to milk and hopefully she's into finger foods too. My son pretty much feeds himself but will ocassionally let you feed him yogurt, applesauce, or soup.

Well, my kids are now 5 and 10. I was never big on schedules -- if they were hungry I fed them and if they were sleepy we would take a nap, or have quiet time. My daughter was a great sleeper. Took an afternoon nap, and went to bed at 9 and slept all night since she was 2 months old.

My son, however, didn't sleep through the night until he was three. Turned out he had sleep apnea, which was so mild we didn't know it until he was over 2. Had his adnoids out at 28 months, and things got better from there.

Both my kids were done with naps by the time they were three. But I think that is a little odd. The big schedule issue on naps for us, was getting them down early enough that they slept for 2 hours, and got up early enough to tired for bed. I always worked the nap time backwards from bed time. For my kids they had to be up 5 hours or they didn't go to sleep at bed time. This would mean a 9 o'clock bed time required them to be up by 4, which meant if I wanted a two hour nap they had to go down by 2. Does that help?

Funny story about feeding -- every child's different -- when my son was 10 months old, he had his first set of ear tubes. He hadn't had any food since 10PM the night before, so when he woke up from surgery the nurse gave us one of those small 2 once bottles of formula that they use in hospitals. My son downed it in less than a minute. The nurse looked at me and said do you think he wants more. Yes! She gave him a second, and he downed it just as fast. Then he was fussy. They started telling me this is normal after the drugs. I was beginning to wonder if these people have kids. The doctor walked in, and looked at me, and whats wrong. I said can I feed him what I brought. He said sure. I took out an 8 oz bottle, he downed that, sat up and gave the loudest burp. Everyone laughted and then he was all smiles! The drugs didn't bother him one bit, he was just hungry. (The point is every child is different and trust your instincts.)

One other note about eating, my kids ALWAYS eat more just before they have a growth spurt. All schedules go crazy in the sleeping and eating department just before they get taller. This is still true with my 10 year old.

Lastly, I didn't give my kids sippy cups until they were over a year. I am sure this is wrong, I just didn't get to it. They drank out of the little paper cups before they were a year, but we just missed the sippy cup thing. Would she use a small regular cup?

I hope this helps.

Hi,

first off I will tell you we never had much of a schedule for very long, the little ones just keep changing! As you are finding out.....

Re how much food/formula /breastmilk they take in--as someone else mentioned, you can't really tell with breastmilk unless you want to weigh baby before and after (not worth the trouble imho).

I think at that age mine were eating 3 meals and sometimes snacks and still pretty much nursing on demand. But it has been a long time--they are teens now!

In general, let baby be your guide to how much to feed--they have enough sense to quit eating/drinking when they are no longer hungry. If they go a little short one meal, they'll make up for it the next.

Re the cup, would she like a regular cup? a small one maybe? Prepare for spills until she gets the hang of it, and I sure wouldn't put a lot of liquid in at any one time. Don't worry, she will eventually do it!

Hugs to you, and enjoy your little one!

K. Z.

As far as breastmilk amounts, you can't put an amount in ounces on breastmilk. It differs from person to person and from child to child. With my oldest son, my breast milk was thicker than whole milk and he drank very little when pumped. With my second son, my breast milk was more like 2% milk and he drained me and wanted more, I had to supplement. With my daughter, my breast milk was like skim milk, but she drank only a few ounces when pumped and seemed quit content.

If you are breastfeeding, let her nurse whenever she wants. If she is bottle fed, I believe she is supposed to have three or four bottles of 7 to 8 ounces each every day.

Here is a feeding guide that I referred to often with my children:

http://www.beechnut.com/Feeding%20by%20Age/index.asp

I used the Gerber products, but used the Beechnut guide to give me an idea of what I should feed them. Here is the Gerber menu maker that might help give you some ideas:

http://menuplanner.gerber.com/

Hi Y., As a mother for almost 27 years, I'm here to tell you that you don't have to have a schedule, I raised 3 kids with no baby or toddler schedule, set schedules are stressful because baby;s and tots are constantly changing, I feed mine when they were hungry, and I fed them the amount I felt was enough for their age, I rocked and sang them to sleep when they were sleepy. I'm not surprized you are going crazy, schedules to most people mean dead lines, we all know dead lines can be stressful, I was a SAHM (Still am) so each day played out on it's own, give or take errands or an appointment, but other than that I just let the day flow, I was able to get done all the things I needed to get done. You young mamas may think i'm crazy or to old fashion, but old school is better, more sleep less stress. J.

Hi Y.!

My DD is 2.5, and I can't totally remember how much food she was eating at 11 months, but I will do my best! She was nursing 4x/day, and I think we did a 7-8 oz. bottle if we were doing that for a feeding... By 11 months, we were basically at breakfast/lunch/dinner plus a breastmilk feed and maybe snack right before bed. I always nursed her before I fed her table food. She ate at approximately 4-5 hour intervals. Breakfast was typically oatmeal with prunes and yogurt with fruit. Lunch and dinner were combos of protein/fruits and veggies (egg yolks, beans, meat, potatoes, veggies and fruit - some pureed and some not) ...I think we introduced wheat products right around 10-11 months (we waited a little because of family wheat allergies). My guess is that she was having about 32 oz. of breast milk/day, but as others have said - just a guess, since it isn't really measurable. When switching to a cup with milk...hmmm...I remember that she drank water fine from a cup. But when we were switching to cow's ilk, she did NOT want it in a cup OR bottle...she drank it out of a "grown-up" cup with our help. And, eventually, she went ahead and took it out of a cup once she was used to the flavor. Keep trying, or try a different cup? We had to try several sippy cups before we found one she liked (now she'll drink out of anything!) - I think the one she first loved was the Nuby cup.

Sleeping - I was big on having a routine. I was a better mom, and she responded well to routine, too. At 11 months, sleeping was something like...
7ish - up, then breakfast and play
9ish - nap for 1.5-2 hours, then lunch and play
1ish - nap for 1.5-2 hours, then dinner and play
between 7-7:30 was nursing then bedtime...earlier if naps were shorter.

She began to transition to 1 nap shortly after her first birthday. She'd often take a short AM nap, and then sometimes the PM nap was short too! When that started happening more regularly, we started doing a nap more around 11:30 or so, and then gradually moved it to 1:00. It was hard, because if we ran errands in the morning, she'd be starting to fall asleep in the car, and if she snoozed, then the real nap was hard to get...then we were both a little miserable! ;) But, I really worked to keep her busy in those mornings and keep her awake in the car or whatever. And...once she completely transitioned to that one nap, she started sleeping a little later in the morning! :-) I know that doesn't always happen, but since I didn't have the morning nap to "protect", I let her sleep later. that eventually turned into her sleeping between 30 min to an hour later! Even now, if she wakes up and I need to grab a quick shower or something, she's content to play in her bed for a few - in fact, she kind of needs a little "wake-up" time to sing and chat.

Hope that helps a little. If your DD is ready to go to one nap, it's not the easiest transition, but once you're there all the way, it's AWESOME! Much more time blocked out for playdates or other things. You can do it!! :)

I agree with the other mamas... don't drive yourself crazy about schedules! Their needs change so much that it's just easier to listen to what they are trying to tell you- it's different every day for us and I don't plan my life around their schedule. My third is 11 months now so I'll give you what is working for us right now ;) Oh, and my kids have all eaten a ton of food, and pretty much whatever we are eating by this age (of course with consideration of chewing ability). Here's a general idea of our day when we are home...
~6:30 get up and he gets a sippy - 6oz of formula (I use the soft sippies that are sort of like bottles but with handles- we just switched to formula about a month ago)
~7-8 (or as soon as I can get to cooking) a piece of toast and an egg and fruit.... pretty much as much as he wants until he stops watching my every move in the kitchen and grunting for more :)
~9 nap (sometimes at 8:30 sometimes at 10- just depends when he seems ready)
up from nap (usually about an hour these days but usually longer when he goes down earlier) so he gets up and has another 6 oz of milk and maybe some cheerios or some kind of bread/muffin if it's still a while before I plan to fix lunch
~11 lunch usually some yogurt or some deli meat and cheese, steamed veggies cut into small pieces, black beans, pasta... whatever we have around... again he gets more until he stops finishing what I put on his tray or acting interested in what I have in the kitchen
then he plays for a while- usually if he doesn't go down for an afternoon nap by 2, he won't take one, so...
if he naps, he goes down between 1-2 and sleeps for about an hour and then it's off to pick up sisters from school and play while I start dinner (he usually gets some snacks to keep him busy while I am cooking)
Then he eats around 5:30 then gets another bottle before we put him down around 6:30
If he doesn't nap again... then I miserably try to keep him occupied while he gets into everything as I try to cook dinner. This usually end with me giving up on him having dinner with us and I fix him anything I can find so he get to bed sometimes as early as 5:30 so I don't lose my last ounce of sanity :) Then it starts all over again the next morning. But, he does sleep all night and he doesn't need me to put him to sleep- just plop him in his crib and he takes care of getting situated and going to sleep.

The key for me is getting him to bed before he is too overtired or he's difficult in every way- he doesn't go to sleep and he's super busy and into everything and nothing holds his attention. As you can see, our "schedule" is very inconsistent and of course is totally off if I am running errands or just want to do something out of the house for the day.

Good luck- mostly try to listen to her needs and not what she "should" be doing at this age!