Every family is different and the way I do it is not for everyone... it's just the way I do it :-)
I breastfeed exclusively... none of my babies has ever had a bottle. But I do use a pacifier for my babies who will take one (my boys did, my girls wouldn't). Our babies don't sleep in our bedroom even at the beginning mostly because my husband is the lightest sleeper I've ever met or talked to. The times we've tried it he has woken up at every wiggle, snort, and movement.
For the first 4 weeks or so, I sleep in the baby's room and I nurse pretty much constantly. At around 6 weeks I start putting the baby down in his/her bed in their room and going to my own bed. When they wake in the night I go into their room and spend the rest of the night in their room. Over the next few weeks the time I'm in my own bed gets longer until they sleep through the night on their own a couple times. After they do that, if they wake in the night, my husband (yes, he's wonderful!) goes into their room and makes sure their diaper hasn't leaked, changes them if they need it, and gives them their pacifier. He's the one that goes in there because if they see me they want to nurse. Once he comes back to bed, if they continue to fuss I go to them and will nurse them... you never know when they've hit a growth spurt after all :)
Now, in order for this to work, I have to be diligent to get all their feedings in during the day. There is no letting them sleep for a five or six hour stretch during the day. Sometimes it's hard to be diligent about this because it's easier to let them keep sleeping, but I've learned the hard way it's better to wake them :) I wake them up to feed them every 2 - 3 hours all day long. The sleeping through the night won't happen if I don't do this consistently.
I don't do rice cereal at all during this time. I don't give my babies solids until they are 5 or 6 months old. I do use their sleeping patterns as cues for when they are ready for solids. If they have been sleeping all night consistently for over a month and then all of a sudden start waking, I think it may be time to try solids, so I do.
My kids go to bed at 7:00 (I let the 9 year old stay up a little later than this reading in the living room), so I put my babies to bed at 7:00 and then get them up to feed them right before I plan to go to bed. Right now my 8 month old goes to bed at 7:00, eats one more time at 10 and goes right back down, and then wakes up at 6:30 when the rest of the kids get up. He's been doing that for several months now. I eliminate the 10 feeding around 10 months or so usually. Then they sleep straight through from 7 till 6:30. I could eliminate the 10:00 feeding earlier probably, but I usually don't want to risk them waking up in the middle of the night so I hold on to it a while :)
I don't let my babies cry for long periods of time, but I do let them cry a little. My 8 month old from the beginning did not want to be cuddled or held while he fell asleep... he wanted me to put him down. He'd fuss for less than 5 minutes or so and then be sound asleep. If I tried to get him to sleep by rocking or cuddling I'd have to fight with him for 30 minutes or more. I was glad to figure that one out :) Every baby is different, though, and some of mine did like to be cuddled.
The other important thing that helped me was that I didn't nurse my babies to sleep (after the first 4 weeks or so). I would lay them down awake, they would fall asleep, then I would feed them, then they'd be awake a while. This was important so they didn't expect to be nursed (or fed) to sleep.
I realize that my methods will not work for everyone... some parents like to co-sleep... some moms don't have a husband willing to go into the babies in the night.. some moms won't want to sleep in their babies rooms for a month. But this is what works for us... hopefully someone can take what will work for them and it will help :-)
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