5 month old routine

[Lovemybubble15]

So tomorrow I'm starting putting my lil boy into a proper routine as until now he's not had one, and going to bed well after 10! Does anyone with a 5 month old already have a good routine - looking for tips!

[Gillian1980]

Our routine is pretty good, DD is 5 months next week.

It has been entirely baby-led, developed from her cues. There was no obvious routine at all until about 14 weeks or so, then it just emerged quite quickly.

Wakes at about 9am. Wash, nappy, dress then bottle 6oz.

10.30 ish Nap on me for about 20 mins.

Wake, cuddle then play time.

12 ish, nappy, feed 6oz. Book or singing.

1pm ish nap on me for 30 mins.

1.30pm wake, play time.

2.30ish. Nappy, 6oz bottle, few spoons of rice or puree.

3.30 ish nap on me for 30 mins.

4pm. Wake and cuddles, play time.

5pm ish. Nappy, 6oz feed. Cuddles and play with daddy.

6ish nap on daddy. Then quiet time with daddy.

7.30 - 8pm ish. Bedtime.
In dim bedroom - wash, nappy and PJs. 6oz bottle. Into cot sleepy and quick kiss. Light off, door closed and left to fall asleep.

Very rarely wakes during the night.


This is if we are home all day. If we need to go out then she naps in the car or pram instead of on me.

Not ideal that daytime naps are all on me or dh but she won't settle in the cot in the day. I just make sure I've got a coffee ready and read or go on my phone while she naps.

[Lovemybubble15]

Thank you!

I'm impressed your lo sleeps through (and slightly jealous)

I am breastfeeding so lo feeds on demand which can make naps bedtime all over the place. But in process of dropping day feeds for formula and also giving a little food (even though hw did not recommend)

Might also consider putting into own room and see if that helps the sleeping.

[Gillian1980]

I realise I'm bloody lucky - though its only since she's been in her own room, she never did in our room. Though I keep waiting for the sleep regression to kick in... So I'm not taking it for granted!

I used to bf the changed to ff and I think that has made things a bit more routine.

The baby rice and puree is a new thing, just a week so far, as she was having bowel issues and doctors felt it may help... Not helped yet but fingers crossed.

Good luck with it all, I'm sure a routine will fall into place when your baby is ready :)

[FATEdestiny]

You are much better following baby's lead to develop a routine. For us 5 months marked the change from short, regular naps on the EASY routine to longer daytime naps 2 or 3 times a day - this change was baby led though.

Depending on which side of this your baby is, up to 5 or 6 months old I would go for a 2-2.5h EASY cycle:

E- Eat - start with a full feed upon waking
A- Awake activity, around 90 minutes from waking at this age, 2h at most
S- Sleep - I use the bouncy chair down stairs until longer naps develop. Into chair with dummy and bounce a few times to get to sleep. Nap would generally be 30-45 minutes
Y - You time while baby sleeps

From 5 or 6 months old, naps will generally start getting longer. If in the bouncy chair you may find you can gentle bounce baby back to sleep when waking as a way to teach longer naps. By the time I was getting naps of 1.5h plus, that was when we moved naps into the cot upstairs and this signified a change away from EASY. Then an average routine would be:

7am wake, milk
9am milk, nap upstairs in cot
11am (ish) baby wakes naturally (could be give or take half an hour), milk
1pm milk, nap upstairs in cot
3pm (ish) baby wakes naturally (could be give or take half an hour), milk
5pm milk, there will sometimes be a 30-45m downstairs powernap here, especially if am and pm naps were shorter or earlier.
7pm milk, bedtime