So, LO is 6 months old. She goes to bed at 6:30pm (like, is in bed, half asleep at 6:30). I work until 5 and get home about 5:25pm. I have to nurse her, make dinner for the family, feed her something, feed the family and get her through bedtime routine in 65 minutes.
How?
ETA: I can't pushy her bedtime back b/c she is DONE by 6:20pm...fussy, crying, tired.
cherry / 114 posts
I get home between 430-5 depending when I get off and my daughter is lights out in crib at 6. The biggest thing that helps me is meal prepping on the weekend. I make big meals that I know I can get leftovers out of. Also my husband and I have been relying on frozen meals for us which isn’t ideal but I can only do so much 
nectarine / 2180 posts
When E was in that stage I would have her eat leftovers or something simple that I could cook up quickly and my husband and I would eat after she went down to bed. I would have her eat while I started prepping our dinner some nights and other nights I would just sit with her and then prep something quick after. It did mean that for a bit my husband and I were eating around 7 but it meant that E was calm and in bed at a reasonable time and I didn't want to cry getting it all done. It also helped that E was bottle fed by this point so I didn't have to physically sit and nurse for 20 min, she could down a bottle pretty fast even if I did want to just sit and hold her.
kiwi / 549 posts
I didn’t and don’t feed LO an actual “dinner” during the week. At that age, I’d just give her a bit of avocado and applesauce or something with her bottle and then we’d eat dinner after. But I only have one LO. She is 16 mos now and even now during the week she gets a simple/quick dinner and we eat later since she goes down so soon after I get home from work.
ETA: My LO is still in bed at 7 which is why it hasn’t changed much. Kind of annoying but also really nice to have our evenings!
pear / 1767 posts
We did the same thing as @JJ2626. We just had to eat separate meals at that age. We fed LO2 her own foods and would be trying to prep the dinner for the grown-ups and LO1 while she ate. She went to bed at 6:30 and we would finish up meal prep and eat as soon as possible after she was down. Some days I would be in the middle of preparing something and not be quite done (DH travels a lot) so I would just turn off the heat, put her down, and then come back and finish the meal prep. Not ideal but it was just a short phase.
kiwi / 617 posts
I just posted this on other post, which was copied from an old post.
DON'T COOK DURING THE WEEK!
I know that not many people will be able to handle this, but my husband, 2.5 yr old DD and I eat the same meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner all week..
On Sunday we make a big batch of three meals
this week was:
IP Egg bites for breakfast,
Kale & Bean soup for lunch
chickpea salad wraps for dinner
We make enough for 10 breakfasts (DD eats instant oatmeal) 10 lunches (5 each - DD get lunch at daycare) and 12 dinners (4 each). We also prep all snacks and other pieces. this week we had clementines, bread to go with the soup, and yogurt.
So by Sunday night, lunch and dinner is completely ready for the entire week. It is such a relief to not have to worry about food at all during the week. And we typically bring home something on Friday or have a frozen pizza type meal.
My one other suggestion if you can't handle eating the same thing in a row is to do batch cooking and then freeze in serving size portions.
For example, we make a huge batch of chili, and then freeze in our 2-cup size pyrex containers. I take 2 out in the morning, they are defrosted by the time we get home, quick zap and hot chili is ready.
So if you can't eat the same thing several days in a row, try batch cooking and freezing in individual servings, then each night you can have a different meal ready to go.
I get home with DD around 5:30, we are eating by 5:45 and playing by 6pm - bedtime starts at 6:40. On a good night we get a good 45 min of playtime before bed.
(I wrote this for a similar post, and copied and pasted it here ! This is an old post and may help you: https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/family-dinners-1)
pear / 1565 posts
Not going to go into what we do since we had more time, but since super early bed time is always a phase, I'd say just do what you need to do for now, such has freezer meals, eating separately, etc! On weekends you can always catch up and eat as a family then. And just know that as she gets older but before she drops nap(s), there will be other phases where you will wish she is going to bed already, lol!
pomegranate / 3658 posts
"I have to nurse her, make dinner for the family, feed her something, feed the family and get her through bedtime routine in 65 minutes."
Switch your order. Do it like this:
1. Nurse her
2. Feed baby something (fruit, leftovers, string cheese, yogurt, heat up frozen veggies, easy things you can throw in front of her in a second)
3. Baby's bedtime routine
4. Baby in bed
5. Cook dinner for the rest of the family
That is basically what we do, except we divide and conquer a bit so DH is feeding "something" to the baby while I get the real dinner started, then I put baby to bed while DH finishes cooking dinner, then once baby is in bed I sit down with DH and older child for regular dinner.
[ETA] Since she's only 6 months old, you don't need to be putting a full meal in front of her. Just a cup of puree or even a pouch will do.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@PawPrints: we're going into summer and the 7 year old won't have to go to bed at 7:30 so this may just work. Thanks!
grapefruit / 4278 posts
Is your DH around? Can he cook dinner or feed the baby?
We still don't eat dinner with the kids because there just isn't time. Or I could be in the kitchen after work every day and never get to play with them. So the kids eat leftovers or quick frozen kid food, then we do bedtime, then I cook for DH and I... we don't eat until 8:30-9 most nights. 
Or in your case, I would nurse/feed the baby, give the big kid something quick, put the baby to bed, have DH put big kid to bed while I cooked dinner and then we'd finally eat. Not really ideal.
squash / 13199 posts
@mediagirl: well at that age I send solids in to the daycare when my LOs we're only have one solid meal per day. But once they get the hang of eating well then it doesn't take too long to squeeze it in. Or offer finger foods that she can practice picking up herself like shredded cheese while you work on other things.
pomegranate / 3127 posts
Who's watching her during the day? Can they deal with introducing new foods and keep a log for you? I'm home at the moment, but evenings are super hectic and I've ended up giving LO the same thing every night. She gets a bowl of baby cereal because it takes five minutes to make, I know she'll eat it, and it may even keep her full if she decides to sleep all night. I also give her bites of whatever else we're having if it's OK for babies, but the bowl of cereal is a no-fuss mainstay.
coconut / 8472 posts
I think we were just really lazy about solids. LO2 would be screaming some nights by 6pm and I knew she she needed bed. She had some kids in her daycare classroom that screamed all day long and she couldn’t nap so she was exhausted. Better to put the baby to bed, especially at 6m. In the morning you can do a little banana or something. At that age I also sent food to school so the teachers would feel them once or twice a day.
blogger / grapefruit / 4836 posts
It's just hard. My kids still go to bed at 6:30 (asleep by 7) and we basically get home, eat dinner, go to bed. I meal prep on the weekends so I am basically just heating something up at dinner time.
I would just keep family dinner super fast and easy for this season if you can. It's really really hard
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@kiddosc: he does pretty much everything else except cook dinner so that is on me. It's just figuring out the logistics!
@Mama Bird: my husband stays at home. Not a bad idea to have him try to give her something when he's home during the day with her. Makes it less of a rush for me. We've been doing mostly BLW but I wouldn't hate it if he gave her some purees.
@Mrs. Lion: thanks. 
@ShootingStar: yeah, I've been trying to give her a banana or a peach or scrambled eggs (whatever we have) in the morning when we're eating breakfast.
@Mrsbells: I might try the shredded cheese route soon. That's super easy. Thanks.
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