What to do all day?!

[Poshers]

Hi!

Just some advice please.

What do I do all day with my 5 Month Old baby?

So far my day is this:

7-9am .. play time & bottle he is happy & content

9am .. nap

Then it goes horribly wrong, unless I am out of the house until 5:30 (bath time starts) then he screams all day.

So I go for coffee, then baby group, then lunch, then the shops, another baby group or friends meet up, a walk, another trip to the shops etc ...

I have to be constantly on the go otherwise it's meltdown Central most days :((

What does everyone else do please???

Six month old here, I also get out if the house for most of the day (back to work now though) but baby is fine on gym, with CDs on and with toys.

I hope someone can advise. You need some time to get things done at home.

Go out every day.

How do you nap him at home when you are in? The morning nap was always the easiest IMO but subsequent ones I would have to either rock or feed etc to sleep in a dark room otherwise no chance of happening.

Yes hotcross first nap is fine. He then doesn't nap for the rest of the day, maybe 30mins in pushchair or car max!

Do I just accept that I'll have to go out all day everyday ?!

On the days i wanted to be at home, Id get through to lunch, then take dcs for a walk in the pram ( about 30 mins) , come home, wheel the pram into the garden and sprint back inside!!

Mine would sleep much better outside and it gave me a good hour to get jobs done. ( back garden secure and would work in kitchen, overlooking garden)

Mine are 6 and 9 now, and are still much better if we are out all day!!! I wish the walk and garden thing still worked !!

How long does he sleep for, at that first 9am nap?

It sounds as if he is benefiting from the regularity and stability given by having a stable routine in the morning, and that things are starting to go awry when things get a bit more free-form later on. If I were you I'd work on establishing a second daily nap at home, starting no more than two hours after he wakes up from his last nap. So likely around 12-1pm. I would use the same pre-nap routine you use for the morning nap, if that is working well - the main thing is to be consistent, as that's how babies learn best. And get him down to sleep before he becomes overtired. Dr Marc Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child has some excellent advice on baby and child sleep (if you don't mind making it all the way through the doorstop-sized book).