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William’s 6 Month Old Schedule

William is already halfway to the one year mark! I can’t believe it. His 6 month old schedule is going great.

Over the past month, since my last update, William has been just taking it easy. He’s gaining weight very well, he’s eating well, sleeping great, and loving solid foods!

Yes, we finally got to start solid food!

With Caroline we started solid food right when she turned 4 months old. William just wasn’t ready. He wasn’t doing supported sitting well enough.

When he turned 5 months old, he’d newly been switched from breastfeeding to formula, and then ended up with pneumonia. There just hadn’t been a good time.

Once we had him healthy, and he’d been on formula for a few weeks, we decided to start solid foods. Full details below!!

6 month baby schedule

6 Month Old Schedule

William’s schedule hasn’t changed much. The only thing we’ve done is added in some solid food now. See below for a printable version of this schedule.

Feeding Schedule for Month 6

7 am wake and bottle, 8:15 am solids, 11 am wake and bottle, 12 pm solids, 3-3:30 pm wake and bottle, 5 pm solids (sometimes he gets them at 6 pm instead), 6:30-7 pm bottle

William is still on a 2 hour wake time. He’s just showing signs that I need to maybe push it to 2 hours and 15 minutes or 2.5 hours.

ideal wake times
"Babywise schedules eat wake sleep sample schedules" Newborn baby, sitting baby, walking, and talking one year old.
how the babywise method helps babies sleep better

He is offered solid food at our breakfast, lunch and dinner (more details below). We want to set the idea that he eats when we eat.

His last bottle is up to him. When he starts showing signs that he wants it, he can have it at any time between 6:15-7 pm. We follow his lead.

Sleep Schedule for Month 6

9 am – 11 am first nap, 1 pm – 3/3:30 pm second nap, 5/5:30 pm to 5:50 pm catnap, 7:20 pm bedtime

If William is sleeping well during his second nap, I let him sleep until 3:30, because it helps us with getting him solid food for dinner, before he goes down for his catnap.

6 month babywise schedule

Eating

I love love love feeding solid foods!

We are big on purees here in this house. Baby led weaning just wasn’t our thing. No offense to those that do it.

For us, we want our baby to experience actually getting some food in their mouths and start transitioning to chewing more quickly.

We make our own purees out of fresh vegetables and fruit. It’s super easy to do, and it saves a lot of money. Plus, I think it tastes better than the stuff you can buy in jars.

Caroline started solid foods at 4 months. By 7 months she was eating bite sized pieces of our food. It was amazing.

William is behind that, and is also moving at a slower pace. He’s loving the food, though, and we are enjoying feeding him.

6 month old eating solid purees

Solid Foods

We start with baby cereal. Rice cereal was constipating for Caroline, so we moved to oatmeal. With William, I started on oatmeal first this time.

The reason we like to start with cereal, is that it’s a simple sugar. It’s easy for the body to digest. I write about our decision and solid food timeline at this post.

Unfortunately for William, he was allergic to the oatmeal!

I was so surprised, but he ended up breaking out in hives. I wasn’t even thinking there was a chance of him being allergic to it!

We stopped the oatmeal, and let things settle down. After about a week, I tried the oatmeal again. Hives again! Definitely confirmed it was the oatmeal (or something in it). We are hoping it isn’t a wheat allergy (the oatmeal states it has wheat in it).

We then moved on pretty quickly to just making vegetable and fruit purees.

Solid Foods Tried

At this point, William has tried several things:

  • Sweet potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Zucchini
  • Peas
  • Bananas
  • Strawberries
  • Peanut butter
  • Nectarines
  • Ice cream (not joking) he got a lick of my chocolate to try and then took it out of my hand LOL!

William pretty much likes everything. Peas are his least favorite, but there are days he gobbles them up.

I went ahead and tried peanut butter, strawberries, and nectarines… all on the list of things that are more likely to be food allergens. He did great with all of them.

I’ve read so many things saying that the new research shows to introduce things early if possible to actually prevent allergies!

Today he also tried some whole milk baby yogurt and loved it.

6 month old licking a spoon

When We Offer Solid Food in the Schedule

We offer solid foods when we are eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He gets solid food offered 3 times a day.

We do this, because eventually, when all the bottles are gone… this is when he’ll eat. He won’t be on his own schedule. He’ll be on a 3 meal family schedule.

So, we just start like this to begin with.

Now, there are days that, if we are out, he skips one of those meals and just has his bottles at normal times.

That’s also ok. He’s not relying on solids yet for nutrition.

Bottles

William’s 6 Month Old Schedule

As for bottles, William gets 4 bottles each day.

For the most part, he averages 6 ounces in each bottle.

Occasionally, he takes 8 ounces for the first feeding of the day. And he sometimes doesn’t eat all of the other bottles.

Today as an example, he ate 6 ounces for breakfast, but then only 3 ounces for his 11 am feeding.

We were out and he was distracted.

He then ate solid foods great at 12:30 pm.

Water

William doesn’t need water yet. But, we are trying to get him successful with a sippy cup. We’ve tried a straw cup, and the miracle 360. He’s not understanding to suck yet.

He’ll get there. In the meantime, we just keep practicing!

If you are curious how much your infant can drink when it comes to water, check out these guidelines.

Wake Time

William is still on a 2 hour wake time. I could easily extend it to be closer to the normal range for this age, but he’s happy and sleeping so well. I am holding off any changes to his schedule until I need to!

He is a grabbing pro now. He never misses and is even starting to hold books pretty well.

He has not been successful with rolling from back to belly yet, but gets 90% of the way there. He then seems content and doesn’t push too hard! LOL

He’s also grabbing at his toes so much right now. It’s super cute. That then gets him rolling up onto his side more and more!

6 month old baby touching toes

He is trying hard to push forward when on his belly (unsuccessfully unless I give him my hand to push off of).

He is easily rolling from belly to back and just deciding to do it more and more now.

6 month old rolling onto side

He is sitting supported very well, but still has no desire to sit upright on his own. We prop him up all the time though. If I try to have him sit on his own, he just flops over pretty quickly without much effort.

He loves his standing legs and seems to just want to skip sitting as a result!

He’s really enjoying books and talks a lot when we read to him.

In the evenings he loves to just talk to us!

For some toy ideas for 6-9 month old babies, check out this post.

6 month old looking at stuffed animal

Pre-Potty Training

Yes you read that right. When Caroline was about 5 months old, my husband had a genius idea. She was an obvious pooper (red grunting face). He had the idea to just put her on the toilet.

It worked great. As a result, she was never afraid to poop on the potty.

The other huge benefit, was cleanup. We use cloth diapers, so cleanup after having started solid foods becomes more challenging. You can’t just stick the whole diaper (poop and all) in the washing machine like you can with breastmilk/formula poop.

So, we do two things:

First, we use cloth diaper liners. This way, the poop ends up in the liner and we don’t have poop to scrape off of a cloth diaper.

Second, we try to notice when he’s pooping, and put him on the toilet.

6 month old being held on the toilet
Sorry for the blurry picture- Caroline (4 years old) was trying to get a good shot 🙂

He’s pooped on the potty multiple times now. Clean up is a breeze, and he knows exactly what to do.

I’m so impressed with how well he’s taken to it.

Nap Time

William’s naps are going great.

After a 2 hour wake time, he naps from 9-11, then 1-3/3:30, and then takes a catnap from 5/5:30-5:50.

I am usually having to wake him after all of his naps.

On occasion, however, he is waking up early. With this starting to happen, I am thinking of extending his wake time soon. The usual 6 month wake time is somewhere between 2.5-3 hours.

He’s been napping so well, that I haven’t wanted to mess with his wake times yet.

When he starts to wake earlier more consistently, I’ll get that wake time extended!

6 month old chewing on teething necklace

Nap Routine

  • Change diaper
  • Close curtains
  • Turn on sound machine
  • Place in sleep sack
  • Give kisses and hugs
  • Tell him it’s “nap time”
  • Lay him down in crib

Nighttime

Nighttime is also going great. He sleeps from 7:30 pm – 7 am without a peep.

On very rare occasions, he wakes up around 10 pm- every single time it’s been because of a burp needing to come out! Once I get him to burp, he goes right back down.

He requires NO assistance whatsoever with getting to sleep. For naps and bedtime, we simply lay him down wide awake. He goes to sleep quickly and easily.

Bedtime Routine

William has his bottle, sometime after his catnap. He wakes at 6. We don’t offer it right away. We wait for him to ask for it.

He can have it at any time and be fine for the night.

So his bedtime routine no longer includes the bottle every time. If it does, the bottle comes first.

  • Bottle (if he hasn’t already had it)
  • Read two books
  • Change diaper
  • Place in sleep sack
  • Close curtains
  • Turn on sound machine
  • Hugs and kisses
  • Tell him it’s bedtime and that I’ll see him in the morning

Life With Two

4 year old in crib with 6 month old brother

My common theme with this section is that I hate that I can’t give William the attention that I used to give Caroline at this age, and that I love seeing the two of them interact.

Life is harder with more kids. It’s been easy from the logistical standpoint for me. It has not been easy from an attention standpoint. I want to give more than I can to both Caroline and William.

I wonder at times if he isn’t sitting yet, because I haven’t been able to give him as much attention and support with it. I know that’s probably not true, but I wonder.

As moms we just get spread thin, and we can’t do as much as we want to. I feel that so much right now in this season.

Then, I see Caroline pick up a book and show it to William. I see her feed him. I see her sing a song to him before nap (that she makes up on the spot).

4 year old feeding 6 month old solid food

I see her climb in the crib and cuddle with him in the mornings. And I know that they are both getting enough love and attention.

And what’s better, is that they get it from each other.

brother and sister sitting together on the couch

New This Month

Solid food was a big new item this month. With that comes food prep.

We have a specific freezer tray that we love. We have specific spoons that aren’t too deep, that are just right to feed purees with. We have a highchair that is great for supported sitting.

And, we have little glass bowls that are amazing for thawing those frozen purees!

solid food puree prep

Did you know that you aren’t supposed to microwave anything in plastic? Chemicals can get into the food. We found glass bowls that we absolutely love.

We used these for Caroline and her purees, and we now use them for William. We also use them for dips, and storing small leftovers. They are perfect with the lids.

We can microwave purees in them, feed and then keep any leftovers in the same container. These are phenomenal little bowls. We bought two sets!

Here are all of the items we use for food prep of purees, and serving:

Solid Food Items We LOVE:

Magic Bullet
Glass Bowls With Lids
Soft Tip Baby Spoons
Baby Food Freezer Tray
Miracle 360 Cups
High Chair
Magic Bullet
Glass Bowls With Lids
Soft Tip Baby Spoons
Baby Food Freezer Tray
Miracle 360 Cups
High Chair
Magic Bullet
Glass Bowls With Lids
Soft Tip Baby Spoons
Baby Food Freezer Tray
Miracle 360 Cups
High Chair

The only other new thing I can come up with this month, is a sleep sack. William is no longer swaddled, so we put him in this sleep sack to keep him toasty warm at night. This is also a great way to indicate to him that it’s time to sleep. We use it for naps and night.

6 month old schedule and update 8

How To Structure the Day for a 6 Month Old

At 6 months of age, your baby will likely need 2-3 hours of wake time. They need about 4 feedings, and 3 naps. Here's a starting point for building your baby's 6 month old schedule.

Instructions

6 Month Wake Time

Start by figuring out the wake time that is ideal for your child. For us, our baby is still at 2 hours of wake time.

6 Month Old Schedule

This is a great schedule for 6 months of age. When we switch to a longer wake time, we'll still keep this same schedule structure, and naps will just get pushed out a bit!

  1. 7 am wake and feed bottle
  2. 8:15 am feed solids
  3. 9-11 am nap
  4. 11 am wake and feed bottle
  5. 12 pm feed solids
  6. 1-3/3:30 pm nap
  7. 3/3:30 pm wake and feed bottle
  8. 5 pm (or 6 pm) feed solids (this changes depending on dinner for us)
  9. 5/5:30 - 5:50 pm nap
  10. Feed last bottle somewhere between 6-7 pm
  11. Bed at 7:20 pm

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6 month old babywise schedule

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