We are back again for another blog post for the Delux Designs (DE), LLC mommy and parenting blog segment #DEArtMom! Today’s topic is on Meal Scheduling for your little one. We will be discussing meal scheduling for both breastfeeding moms and bottle feeding moms. Before we get started please note that these blog posts on being a mom and parenting is from my (@K_DougDE) own personal experiences as a mom. I am not a doctor or a pediatrician, just a mom with experiences and a desire to help other new moms out with my experience. What works for me may not work for someone else and their situation and vice versa. Please respect my views and experience along with anyone else’s that comments in the comment section below to discuss each topic. This is as safe space for in general discussion and problem solving to help one another out on our parenting journeys. Let’s get started!
Breastfeeding
When I first found out that I was pregnant, the first thing I was really excited to do was Breastfeeding. I admired women who produced their own food supply for their children and felt like that was the ultimate bonding moment for a mother and her child. This is something I wanted to experience more than anything as a new mother. What I didn’t realize was how hard Breastfeeding actually can be in reality. Other mothers I had seen growing up made it look incredibly easy but for me I ran into a lot of difficulties starting off.
First issue I ran into was underestimating how many times to give my newborn the breast for feeding sessions. I thought in the beginning that it would be easier to align the breastfeeding schedule as you would a bottle feeding schedule and that’s where I went wrong. As a breastfeeding mom I found out early directly from my own child that you are required to breastfeed a whole lot more than bottle feeding. When your child is fussy, give them the breast. When your child is up and won’t sleep, give them the breast. When your child awakes for the day, give them the breast. Before bed, give your child the breast. For me it seemed like I had to give my child the breast for literally everything, but this was the wrong mindset to have. What I should’ve been thinking and the mindset I should have had is that breastfeeding is an on-demand way of feeding. Your child will literally let you know when they need to eat versus you trying to place them on a schedule around what you have going on and your own individual adult feeding schedule. I put an emphasis on the terms “on-demand” because I’m not going to lie breastfeeding is very demanding. You have to realize that what you ingest is what your child eats in the milk from your breast so ultimately you’ll be placing yourself on your own meal plan schedule to make sure they have what they need nutrition wise. This is very helpful with both of your health but can be very intimidating and may cause some anxiety with the demand if you’re not prepared and don’t have the right resources available to you early on.
I did take part in pumping from my breast into bottles as well for my child. Still breastfeeding but dipping over to bottle feeding from time to time and that was even more demanding in my opinion for me. I had to hook all this equipment up to myself and carry it around and it made a consistent noise while my baby was trying to nap. Sometimes I would end up falling asleep with the breast pump attached. Sometimes I would have to drag it around to get things done. It was just a lot so I personally preferred to breastfeed directly from the breast most of the time, but even with pumping I attempted to place myself on a pumping schedule. Now the pumping schedule is not a bad idea as it can help a lot with keeping you on track and on schedule with each pump. For pumping you have to stay consistent in order to keep the milk flowing if you’re not feeding directly from the breast, if not you milk supply will completely decrease.
Bottle Feeding
Now, I ended up moving towards full supplement bottle feeding from breastfeeding for personal reasons with formula after my direct experience with breastfeeding, so I have experience in both feeding methods. Bottle feeding with formula is less demanding. You don’t have to worry about pumping or having a baby attached to your body and what not. But it too can be demanding when it comes to cleaning and sterilizing bottles constantly, actually filling bottles constantly for each feeding time, and carrying all those bottles and formula around with you and your little one when you’re on the move with your little one. But the feeding times are a little more structured and not as much as on-demand compared to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is also more healthy if you’re eating healthy foods and drinking plenty of water compared to powdered or liquid formula in which you don’t know fully nor can you see fully what is included in it and you’re having to trust that the ingredients labeled are telling the truth.
Meal Scheduling
I say all of this to say my biggest issue was scheduling feeding times overall. I asked myself constantly what can I do to make this better for me and my child to where we are both eating and drinking healthy on a regular basis and it came to me that the key to successfully planning meals for your little one is recording. The more you record what happens with your little one, the more you can go back and figure out what is going on with them when something goes wrong and what their patterns are. When you have a baby it’s no longer about you and you cannot place your child directly into your patterns of doing things. You have to learn your child own child’s ways and patterns of doing things, and please believe no child has the same exact patterns or ways of doing things.
With my experience with both breastfeeding and bottle feeding, I have come up with some great recording solutions and a way new moms like myself can keep up with the demand and begin a scheduling process for meal times for your little ones. Remember I said before with breastfeeding it was more about tracking down the demand times your little one has to feed daily. Well with recording you can look back and see when and around what times of the day he or she demands to be breastfed the most. So you may not be able to fully schedule times for your little one to take your breast to eat or drink, but you can be prepared around those demanding times better and more prepared to accompany him or her through recording. My recording solutions is great for scheduling bottles for bottle fed babies by making sure they are getting the correct ounces daily, along with making sure you’re not over feeding your little one daily.
First solution we have created and designed to help you with scheduling includes a pamphlet for you to record meal times each feeding session.
This pamphlet is intended for you to record each time you either breastfeed your child or bottle feed your child daily.
What’s Included:
- Section to record the date of the day at the top of the meal scheduler.
- Section to record each meal time of each day.
- Section to record how much was fed in size.
- Section to record feeding method which includes breastfed, breast pump, or bottle.
You can either download our Meal Scheduler Printables here with our founder Delux Designs (DE), LLC affiliate partner Creative Market, or you can order your very own Meal Scheduler Pamphlets to record and keep up with each day’s feeding schedules in one place here in our Etsy Storefront.
Meal Scheduler + Diaper Change Scheduler
If you’ve been subscribed to our blog for some time now, or if you’re new here and this is your first time reading, we have already released our Diaper Change Scheduler Printables and Pamphlets but today with the release of our Meal Scheduler Printable and Pamphlet we have something special for everyone. We have consolidated both pamphlets into one.
As a mom, you know meal time and diaper time go hand in hand, they correspond to one another as your child grows healthy and strong so we wanted to give you that option as well to keep up with both moments in one place for easy planning and reference for doctor’s appointments monthly.
What’s Included:
- 20 pages of Meal Schedulers that include sections for you to record the date of each feeding, a section for the time of each feeding, a section to record the sizing of each feeding and a section to record the method of each feeding.
- 20 pages of Diaper Change Schedulers that include sections for your to record the date of each diaper change, sections for the hour of each change, sections of the type of change that occured and whether it was a dirty diaper or a wet diaper, and sections for the color of each diaper change.
We hope these options and solutions help you and would love your thoughts and viewpoints on the subject. Feel free to leave your comments in the comment section at the bottom of this post.
Disclaimer: Affiliate links have been included in this post in which Delux Designs (DE), LLC receives a commission from any sales made through this post. We assure you, the products featured through DE from product reviews are products that we recommend based off of our own personal experiences from using them. All pregnancies are not the same and everyone doesn’t go through the same things. My pregnancy experience is not the same as anyone else’s. The views and statements made through #DEArtMom blog segment of Delux Designs (DE), LLC does not reflect the experiences and views of other women whom are or have been pregnant before. The statements and posts of this blog segment are not a reflection of any licensed physicians or doctors and should not be attempted or duplicated by anyone that is currently pregnant or trying to become pregnant. Always consult with your own physician or doctor before taking any medications or trying any pregnancy practices found online.
For continuous updates on all new mommy and parenting blog posts, product reviews, product hauls & much more follow our social media page links listed below. Thanks for your support everyone!
Facebook | Instagram | Medium | Pinterest
2 thoughts on “#DEArtMom – Meal Scheduling”