A schedule? Yes, please.

Well, I've been reading in my Baby 411 book that Ella should start to have a schedule in the next few weeks. I don't believe it, but we'll see. More accurately, I think that it's time for me to help Ella form a schedule. I realized today that up until now I've been doing everything on demand--whenever she seems hungry, I feed her; whenever she seems happy, we play; whenever she seems sleepy, I put her down for a nap. The only thing we have so far is a sleep ritual: bathtime, put on jammies, eat, bed. This has been going really well--Ella tends to go almost immediately to sleep. HOWEVER, the issue comes with her first night feeding (that could be 3 hours post-bedtime or 6 hours post-bedtime, but there is always at least 1 night feeding). Now, you may say to yourself, "One night feeding? How wonderful!" Don't be fooled, though...I was in the beginning. Turns out that this night feeding turns into a 2 1/2 hour marathon awake session that is usually from about 3 until somewhere around 5:30 AM. What's to be done?? I'm at a complete loss. I've read from multiple reliable, professional sources that children her age cannot soothe themselves yet. I've experienced this first hand over the last several nights as we've transitioned her to her crib. She tries, but cannot soothe herself yet, although I see progress. Just today she woke up from a nap (I think because her tummy was hurting), cried for a few minutes, then went back to sleep. I heard her sucking on her hands a little while later (soothing technique). However, she does not apply this behavior to her middle-of-the-night wakenings yet. I've started writing down every feeding and nap that she takes from today on so that I can hopefully have a better schedule in mind. At her age, she should be getting 14-16 hours of sleep in 24 hour period. Also, I think this will help me to see how much she is really sleeping during the day. They say that putting babies to bed earlier will actually help them sleep longer at night. Last night I put her to bed at 8:45 instead of 9:30. She woke up 4 times during the night. I'm pondering that today. Wish her (and me) luck as we start this new scheduling thing! Let the games begin!