6 month old schedule

ShakleeMom

Tue, Jun 16 2009, 9:28 pm

Amother, wow! My heart goes out to you. my baby is 7 months old. She wakes up at 7am when I wake up the kids, otherwise she would sleep longer. Immediately, her water-bomb diaper gets changed and she gets a fresh outfit and is plopped into the high chair. She gets a jar of applesauce mixed with baby cereal. Then, the kids have breakfast and she is happy to observe and does a lot of talking.

When the kids leave, she goes back to bed with a bottle (nursing, in your case) and sleeps for about 2 hours. When she wakes up she is very playful and plays with stuff. If she gets tired again, I put her back to sleep (usually drinks an ounce to make her sleepy). She wakes up when the kids come home and she plays with them. Then, at supper time she gets her supper food (stuff from the chicken soup) and then a bath. After the bath, I used to put her to sleep between 9:30 and 11:30 pm for the night, and I’m slowly moving it down so that she can go to sleep at 7 and sleep for 12 hours. So far I’m up to 8:30 already B’H.

Hope you can find some peace in the future but it only works if you are strict and not, hmmm leme see, is she tired? It’s so worth it!

pinkbubbles

Wed, Jun 17 2009, 10:09 am

Wake her up and put her to sleep the same time every day (make sure shes sleeping enough for her age)
If she gets tired after a certain amount of time you can already have a loose schedule just from knowing that. Like if wakeup time is 7 am, then you know at 9:30 shes going for her first nap, and lets say she wakes at 11:30, its back to sleep at 2, up at 4 Then when she gets tired after that it should be bed time. Eating can be scheduled around sleep time easily, since the first feeding is usually at wake time, second bottle after lunch, and third bottle right before bed. Solids in between bottles (like 8, 1, and 6) or something like that.

If you don't want a strict time schedule then it should at least be
E - eat
A - awake
S - sleep
Y - you time while she is sleeping

Look for 'sample' schedules online to get ideas on what other mothers do.

happymom

Wed, Jun 17 2009, 10:40 am

the first thing I found with shcedules (my kids usually were on one at four months and they make thier pown and it becomes thier routine) is putting them to put at a normal hour each night. then, they usually wake up somewhat around the same time. after that check for sings on tiredness. at that age its usually every three hours, and they usually take three naps..... if you look closely at your baby for signs of tiredness (that means BEFORE they are overtired) and feed them, and give them thier nap, it will start to be a routine and then you will know your babies schedule. the most important thing is to keep to thier nightime bedtime and naps. (not taking them out whenever and wherever if its thier sleeping time which is done best at home in thier crib, or the same place every time.

amother

Wed, Jun 17 2009, 12:49 pm

I feel that I can really relate to your situation. I was driving both myself and my baby crazy trying to get her on a schedule, for months we worked at it. For a while she was good at night and slept through the night and the day was really hard on us. Now finally at 6 months she is getting into a routine.

I tried using Tracy Hoggs EASY method as described by another poster but my baby just didn't want to nap, therefore the S and the Y were both missing, but she did go to sleep really early and was sleeping a good 12 hours at night. I know a lot of people feel very strongly about babies going to sleep on their own in their cribs (which mine does at night, just was not good at during the day) so what I did was I would take her for a walk in the stroller at nap time or even nurse her to sleep just to get her into the pattern of a schedule and get her used to realizing that it was time to nap and now finally after a few weeks of this she is taking naps on her own, in her crib. So she is on a modified EASY schedule. While I was trying to sleep train her she would cry and cry and cry in her crib, I felt she may feel that she didn't want to go to sleep if her belly wasn't full and since I put her to bed at night on a full tummy maybe that would help her for naps as well and it really has! Since she started solids, in the mornings I will nurse her, (she doesn't eat for that long) and then she plays, when she begins to get tired (rubs her eyes yawn, etc) I feed her breakfast (solids) then we go into her room, change her diaper read a book and she nurses for about 10 to 15 minutes, then she goes down for a nap in her crib. (in the beginning she would fall asleep while nursing and sometimes wake up when put down kvetch a little and then go to sleep.)
But remember every baby is different and what works for others may not be the case for yours. sometimes it's just an issue of trial and error, but it is very important to get your baby to learn how to fall asleep on her own so that she won't have to rely on you to nurse her to sleep. I would definitely recommend training her for the night first before you tackle the day, if you have not already done so.

I'm sorry for the length of this post I just really feel your pain and want to help!
Lots of Luck to you!