Wanting a more structured day

[waffles1]

I have a 5 month old and still feel that daily life is lacking in routine. i don't want anything really rigid but just something to feel more organised.
I am still feeding ds every 3 hours but it's not set times as depends on when ds wakes up. E.g, wake up at 6am (i treat anything before 6.45am as a night feed) the feeds are then 9am, 12pm, 3pm & 6pm bed at 7.15pm. Or a wake up at 7am, then the feeds are 10am, 1pm, 5pm & 7pm, bed at 7.15pm.
Naptime is still a bit eratic as usually after 2 - 2.5 hours of being awake ds is tired to i will put him down for a nap, so he ends up usually having 3 naps a day but these also vary in length.
The reason for wanting more routine is that i find it hard to plan anything and meet people at certain times as ds may be napping and i don't want to wake him, or we could end up doing a car journey after a long nap which just results in too much sleep!!
Does anyone have any advice on how they incorporated more structure into their day or does this just happen naturally over time?

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

I think a lot of it happens naturally and that as they get older the pattern changes. Weaning definitely changed our schedule. I found we went from frequent feeds and naps to fewer drinks/meals and 2 longer naps morning and afternoon. That made planning a lot easier because I knew that if we headed out of the door after breakfast I could get a lot done with him awake, he'd fall asleep in the buggy late morning, leaving me free to meet people and chat over coffee before he woke up again. :) He'd wake up for lunch, then we'd head home. I used to avoid doing too much in the afternoon because it didn't seem to work so well.... but your baby could be different.

[muslimah28]

i found it was better to plan things and let friends know that things might have to change. people will understand. personally i didn't mind waking up ds as long as he'd had a decent nap, but i had a poor sleeper so i had to manage/limit his daytime sleep. if you don't want to do that, then look at the times when you know he will be awake and go out then (by the times you've given it looks like 2pm would be a good time to meet people for lunch?). or if you want to limit an extra nap in the car which isn't needed then meet up with people closer to you so its a short journey. do you go to playgroups? as they give you a routine and also people there understand if you can't always come on time. in a couple of months or so you'll probably find your baby dropping one of his naps then you may find planning a bit easier. but then you will have to dedicate more time to entertainment :)