4 Hour Schedule?

Just curious when your babes transitioned to a 4 bottle (roughly 4 hour) schedule?

We're in a between stage right now with 5 bottles and one solid meal. Sometimes on the weekends, I'll try for 4 larger bottles instead; but it's not always successful--though the 5 bottle approach sometimes seems too frequent for them. I'm thinking that when I add another solids meal (soon--I work full-time and adding one more thing to the mix right now seems like an insurmountable obstacle--I have determined that after their 6 mo well visit, I'll bite the bullet), I'll try to drop the 5th bottle (not really reducing total volume of formula per day, just redistributing).

We're Babywisers, sort of, and if I followed the book exactly (which I don't) they would have been on a 4 hour schedule a long time ago; but they don't consistently eat enough per feeding to really do that.

Anyway--just curious when you reduced to four.

Thanks!
Jenn

 

We did this at 7 months old. Although I think they might have been ready at 6 months old.

 

Mine actually came home from the hospital on a 4 hour schedule, but 6 bottles (obviously not sleeping through!)

They started sleeping through at 4 months, and that is when we were doing 4 bottles a day, and they were drinking those 8oz at every bottle. I have/had little piggies!

I think it just depends on the baby. Good luck! You can always try switching them to 4 bottles, and if it doesn't work for a day or two, maybe they just aren't ready yet ...

 

I'm a bit in the same situation... They usually have 5 bottles, between 5 and 6oz each... but it's getting harder to get them to eat after 3/3.5 hours. They're fine with eating every 4 hours, but then they still only eat the same amount each time, so they end up waking up at night because they're hungry. So, I''m trying to keep it to 3/3.5 hours... I haven't started solids yet. Probably next week end (dead dryer+shots on Friday is a bad plan to start solids this week end!). I'm worried that giving them solids will make them want their bottle even less though.

 

QUOTE(Fran27 @ Aug 20 2008, 02:50 PM) [snapback]939376[/snapback]
I'm a bit in the same situation... They usually have 5 bottles, between 5 and 6oz each... but it's getting harder to get them to eat after 3/3.5 hours. They're fine with eating every 4 hours, but then they still only eat the same amount each time, so they end up waking up at night because they're hungry. So, I''m trying to keep it to 3/3.5 hours... I haven't started solids yet. Probably next week end (dead dryer+shots on Friday is a bad plan to start solids this week end!). I'm worried that giving them solids will make them want their bottle even less though.


FWIW, when we started solids, it did not diminish their bottle consumption one iota. It's weird--we used to finish the day with a 4 o'clock bottle and a 7 o'clock bottle. They still have a 4 o'clock bottle at school (6 oz), then a solid meal at home around 6:30, and they are ready, ready, ready for a full bottle at 7. I usually offer them 8 oz at the last feeding, and about 90% of the time they both finish it--piggies!

Good luck with introducing solids--it's fun--messy, but fun!

 

We made the switch at 3 mos - dropped a bottle and increased the amounts. We made sure to start with the morning bottle, figuring after going all night they'd be hungriest for an 8 oz bottle. Then 4 hours later we gave them 7, four hours later another 7, and then another 8 oz bottle to finish off the day. I was so surprised how easy it was to make the transition.

 

Mine started on 4 bottles per day when we started giving them 3 meals a day (I think at 8 months). It just got to be too much with all the meals and bottles, they couldn't eat that many times in a day!

 

Mine started at 5 months. They were taking longer naps and it would seem like I would have to wake them up from their naps to feed them in order to keep them on a schedule. So, I added one ounce per bottle (so 7oz) and went to 4 bottles/day. It worked out so much better. Then they started to take consistently one long morning nap and one afternoon nap. It didn't affect their nighttime sleep, but I was giving them 8oz at the bedtime bottle.

 

We started 4 bottles a day (7, 11, 3, 7) at about 4 1/2 months!

 

I tried to move to four bottles last week. They take 6-7 oz. at every bottle. It worked for two out of three days. I decided since they aren't consistent about it, they aren't ready yet. We were just doing one solid meal a day up until yesterday when the doctor told me he wants me to offer another meal in the evening. It is really getting tough to do 5 bottles and two solid meals. I start back to work next week, so I'll be curious how this all plays out with daycare. Good luck.

 

We went to 4 bottles a day around 9 months when they started STTN and dropped the last nightime feed and we also started them on 3 solids meals per day.