Need Help with Bed Time for 5 1/2 Month Old Daughter

I think you are pretty much stuck in this until you can start adding solid foods. Luckily you are a stay at home mom...could you imagine doing what you do and having to get up at 6am to get ready for work? That sounds like torture to me. Just a note...you can base your sleep schedule around the babies sleep schedule and do your best to meet your household and husbands needs after that (I just want to say that because I tried to do it all and ended up feeling tired and defeated). Our son never took to breast feeding so we were on bottles and I started adding a very small amount of rice cereal to his bottles 3 times a day (the last bottle being his bedtime bottle) when he was about 3 months old. Doctors don't recommend it but my family has done it for years and we had a hungry son so I did it anyways. He's now 4 and very healthy. In your case I would just go with it until she is on solids (that's when the belly get's full and takes more than 2 hours to digest) and take it easy on yourself by understanding your limitations outside of caring for your little one. There will come a time that you can develop a meal and nap schedule but typically not while solely breast feeding. I know it seems like a long time but it will go by in a flash and you will be chasing her around the house within the next year and wishing it was that easy again.

She's too young for a schedule. Wait until she's 9 or 10 months-old. For now, she rules!

Good Luck!
N.

My babies just turned 6 months and they too have slept through the night since very early on. I'm a little confused as to the reason breastfeeding is hindering a schedule. is your daughter sleeping through a feeding and your engorged? I have found that having a consistent sleep, eat, wake cycle keeps them pretty much on schedule. Granted they don't wake up at the same time every day, nor do they lay down for a nap at the same exact time. But I know that after their morning feeding, they will play for about an hour to an hour and a half and then be ready for a morning nap. When they wake up from the nap, they are usually ready for a bottle. There are so many philosophies on how to get them on a schedule, but maybe pumping for one feeding would help? Like I said, I'm not really clear on the problem, if you clarify, maybe I can help you more.

Since I have two 6 month olds who are very different, I can relate a bit to you.

Your baby is old enough to start a schedule/routine. Have you started giving her rice cereal yet? If so, give that to her before bedtime. Which part are you having a hard time with as far as setting feeding schedules? It doesn't sound like she wakes up at night to feed? If that is not a problem, I'd start with doing a bedtime routine. Feeding, bath, book, bed (or whatever you choose). It really helps babies & toddlers to have a bedtime routine.

this sounds like a man who knows what he's talking about.

http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp