No routine, at all. How did we end up in this mess?

[Mybobowler]

My beautiful, spirited baby girl is 6 months old and our days are chaos. Apart from bedtime, we have zero routine. Nothing she does follows any predictable pattern - nights, morning wake-up time, feeding and nap length all vary hugely from one day to the next. The only way she'll sleep in the day is in the pram or if I feed her, and neither are particularly reliable. I'm at my wits end. I can't make plans for my days, and having any time to myself feels like an increasingly impossible dream. I know some people hate routines for babies, but I am not one of those people. I laugh at how naive I was when I was pregnant - I read the books, Gina Ford, Baby Whisperer etc. How hard could it be, right? Please - PLEASE - where do I start now, at this age? I have no idea what to tackle first and I'm desperate. I don't need to be able to set my clock by her, but having some vague rhythm to our days so I could at least eat lunch or meet up with people would be a considerable improvement.

It’s awful isn’t it - I’ve been there with the hourly wake ups. It’s soul destroying.
But mixed success is some success!
Is dd in her own room? My baby’s sleep improved when put in her own (very dark!) room. Also I’ve recently found that “pink noise” is more soothing to her than white noise. Might be worth a go?
Also, if you’re not getting much of a break talk to DP....I was struggling (also breastfeeding) and we make sure I get more time to myself now.

So my 7 month old still sometimes feeds to sleep but what I try to do is feed till drowsy, then rock to sleep or (if I have time - also have toddler!) I put in cot awake. If she cries I cuddle / rock till calm again and try again. So sometimes she’ll fall asleep in cot but not always. With DD1 she gradually learnt to fall asleep on her own but we were always there to help her if need be.

I don’t know what Little Ones is but I hope it helps.