Help me figure out good schedule for bottle baby

amother

OP ↓

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 9:38 am

Hi- I have a 6 month old baby that is strictly bottle fed.. eats every 4 hours and sleeps thru the night BH BH BH
right now, she wakes at 930 am, naps around 1030/11- eats 130, than naps around 3-4, than eats at 530, falls asleep again around 7ish for an hour, and than eats at 930 and goes to bed for the night.
I know its amazing BH but I am looking to bring bedtime earlier and rather have 1 or 2 naps than a bunch of cat naps.. also about to start introducing foods..
Please no mean comments that baby is being abused and hungry etc. She is happy gaining beautifully and overally amazing baby BH.

Any tips or ideas of your schedule so I can tweek?

Thank you! Again this is purely for bottle babies that sleep on there own.. no sleeping training was involved.. Crying

doughnuts

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 9:48 am

This is a great schedule for a 6 month old! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! The average age to transition to two naps is nine months.

amother

Apple

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 9:54 am

doughnuts wrote:

This is a great schedule for a 6 month old! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! The average age to transition to two naps is nine months.

This
Just let it happen naturally
Try feeding her at dinner-ish time and see when she wants her next bottle.
At this age
Happy, well fed babies sleep

amother

Cerulean ↓

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 9:55 am

doughnuts wrote:

This is a great schedule for a 6 month old! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! The average age to transition to two naps is nine months.

This. Only thing you can change is shift wake up and bedtime earlier if you wanted but it’s too young to take away naps.

amother

Steelblue

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 9:57 am

Imo bedtime definitely needs to be earlier. I’d aim for 7pm . But I agree and infant this age needs 3 naps still

amother

Turquoise ↓

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 9:59 am

If you her to go to sleep earlier you have to wake her up earlier. She's getting the right amount of sleep at night and daytime, the only thing you can do is shift the hours.

amother

↑ OP

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 10:09 am

amother Apple wrote:

This
Just let it happen naturally
Try feeding her at dinner-ish time and see when she wants her next bottle.
At this age
Happy, well fed babies sleep

Thanks!! When do you start taking away 1 bottle and replace it with meal (example jar or cereal)

amother

↑ Turquoise

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 10:21 am

amother OP wrote:

Thanks!! When do you start taking away 1 bottle and replace it with meal (example jar or cereal)

Not for a long time. For now food is in addition to bottles. Keep all the bottles until your pediatrician says otherwise.

amother

↑ Cerulean

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 11:13 am

amother OP wrote:

Thanks!! When do you start taking away 1 bottle and replace it with meal (example jar or cereal)

Not till after a year.

amother

Dustypink

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 11:25 am

This is very similar to what my daughter's schedule was like last year she's now 17 months, I found it very difficult to move her bedtime and wake up earlier. It happened gradually as she got older and her naps shifted around but she still goes to bed relatively late, about 8/8:30 and wakes up 8:30 almost on the dot but it works well for us although I would prefer a slightly earlier bedtime.
She transitioned from 3 to 2 naps at around 8 or 9 months and then 1 nap at around 12 months but in between she had really bad sleep regression at night.
She was having 4 bottles until close to a year and wasn't eating solid food consistently until 9 months.
She went down to 2 bottles at about 15 months and we're now working on reducing the amount in her bottles gradually.
All of these transitions happen very naturally, I always went according to her signs that she was ready for these changes. Whenever I tried to force a change it backfired.

amother

Rose

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 11:35 am

My 8 month old baby schedule
7:30 am wake up, change and 8 oz bottle
10:00 am nap
11:30 wake up, bottle 8 oz
2:00 nap
3:30 wake up 8 oz bottle
7:30 pm - bedtime 8 oz bottle

He eats solids as well

amother

Dandelion

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 12:54 pm

solids till a year is just to expose them to learn how to eat. theyre not really hungry
bottles are kept the same till a year but in between put her in the highchair for some food

amother

Arcticblue

Fri, Feb 09 2024, 1:36 pm

OP my baby is 7 month old, exclusively bottle fed, and also sleeps through the night since about 2-3 months old without having ever been sleep trained BH. I think the main issue you need to fix in order to have an earlier bedtime is not the nap schedule, it’s the feeding schedule. Your baby is going down for a nap at 7pm but then waking at 9:30pm to eat because she is still hungry- she has only had 3 bottles since waking up that morning and she wants a 4th. The only way your baby will sleep at night is if she eats all her calories during the day. That means that you need to slowly move back the timing of her fourth bottle until it’s at the time you want her new bedtime to be. You’ll likely also be able to transition her to a 2 nap schedule easily at that point, because if for example her new bedtime is 8pm, you will be skipping the 7pm nap and pushing her till 8.

It looks like your baby is sleeping 13 hours at night now which is great, just keep in mind that her wake up time will be earlier once her bedtime is earlier. But again, this will just make it easier for her to get all her bottles in during the day.

Also, it’s probably worth it for you to not stick strictly to a 4 hour/4 bottle feeding schedule while you’re training her to go to sleep earlier. Just focus on getting all her calories in before her new earlier bedtime. Once you’ve done that, then you can start transitioning back to a 4 bottle/4 hour schedule if you want to.

For the record my baby isn’t on any strict feeding or nap schedule. She goes to sleep for the night around 6:30-7:30pm and wakes up around 6am-7am. She takes a morning nap about 2-3 hours after she wakes up, and then an afternoon nap anywhere from 1-3. Sometimes if it’s a day where she’s in the car a lot she’ll end up just taking a few catnaps throughout the day. I honestly don’t track her bottles at all, but she eats plenty during the day and naturally sleeps all night Bh, obviously with some exceptions if she’s sick or teething (I never do CIO).

Edit: I see you asked about solids. My baby actually loves to eat (I loosely do baby led weaning, no purees). She eats the most from any of my other kids at this age! I give her whatever foods we’re having, with a stronger focus on fruit and veg. But I never rely on solids for nutritio/calories when they’re under a year. It’s for sensory/motor/feeding skills Even tho I feel like lately she’s having less formula because she actually is swallowing a decent amount of food, which I’ve never had at this age before!

Edit again: I want to point out that 1 nap is not realistic at all for this age, even 2 is only realistic for some babies who naturally do it (this is my first baby that seems to have naturally transitioned to just 2 naps at 7 months).

Edit again: Sorry for all the edits lol but also want to point out that my other babies never sent to sleep earlier than 8 at this age, it’s not worth pushing your baby into a schedule that doesn’t naturally work for them especially when you already have a baby who such a good sleeper/eater.