Answer: Hi there,
I must apologise for not seeing your question earlier, not sure how it slipped out of my view. I had the same experience at 9 months with my first son, felt like I was feeding very two hours. Once you get bub onto solids of three meals and two snacks a day you should notice a real drop off of breastfeeds. It’s also at this point that you can offer solids first. Ideally, you should be able to replace a breastfeed for a snack or meal during the day till you get to about 3 feeds a day (as in 24 hours) and then slowly reduce these as you head to 12 months where you will be at 1-2. The night feed is often the hardest to let go of, for emotional reasons and because it can help bub go off to sleep. At this stage chatting to your ECN or a lactation consultant can be helpful for tips, or also a sleep expert.

On routines I found Karitane was really helpful, they recommend the following for bubs 9-12 months:

- Milk feed

- Up time 3 to 4 hours – Breakfast
– Play
– Morning tea
– Sleep (1 to 2 hrs)

- Lunch

- Up time 3 to 4 hours – b’feed
– Play
– Sleep (approx. 1hr)

- Afternoon tea - Play

- Up time 3 to 4 hours
– Solids
– Bath
– Milk feed
– Quiet time
– Bed time

The night time feeding is likely to be more habit than anything and again chatting to the sleep expert on the panel might be a good idea. Nutritionally, ensure baby has a good last supper or meal that has some form of protein so that the food lasts longer and hunger isn’t an issue. Dreamfeeds I found worked very well, but that is a personal choice and I am sure the sleep expert will discuss settling techniques for the middle of the night.

So I hope that is helpful and you get some well earned long sleeps very soon. All the best with the weaning and well done for breastfeeding for the full 12 months.
Cheery oh
Leanne