I'm having an internal argument with myself right now. I have been feeding on demand, and DS has no real feeding schedule. He started daycare last week, eats between 12 and 16 oz of EBM while he's there, but sometimes the last time he eats is 3, 4, or 4:30- there's no consistency.
I have a nighttime schedule because he's so fussy in the evenings, that we start at 6:30 with a walk with the dog. Then bath, swaddle, feed, and hopefully sleep. However, I'm having trouble trying to make sure he's hungry when its time for his last feed. I'm feeding on demand but then I need him to be hungry around 7:30... any suggestions, or is it something that just needs a little more time to work itself out? It was never a problem when he was cluster feeding and he ate twice every hour in the evenings! TIA!
Re: on-demand feeding vs. bedtime schedule?
I tried so hard to get DS on some sort of schedule, but I have found that it is less stressful to just go with the flow.
He is just now starting to get in a routine during the day.
We feed DD whenever she's hungry and stick to a set bedtime (and have since she was 2 months). Our ideal schedule is bath at 7:30 followed by a bottle and bed around 8 pm. But if DD gets hungry at 6:30 or 7:00, we just feed her and then try to "top her off" after her bath. Sometimes that means she only eats an ounce or two, or sometimes even not at all, right before bed.
I guess I'm not fully understanding why you need him to be hungry.
DD generally goes to bed around 10 or 10:30 so I usually feed her around 9:30 regardless of how hungry she is. If she's really hungry at 9:30 she'll eat a lot. If she's not too hungry she'll eat just a little (it's really more like I'm "topping her up" in that case). She tells me how much she's interested in eating at 9:30 and in either case she's going to bed full.
Would you be averse to "topping up" your DS at 7:30?