Milk, food and naps - 5 month old

[Marcine]

We seem to be in a bit of a transition with longer awake times, milk feeds spreading out and starting food too. I'm just wondering what other people's routines are like for their 5-6 month olds if having solids too?

My baby 6 months today. Sleeps 6:30pm to 7am 70% of the time. Some times wakes for a bottle. Just started on food. Just started him with breakfast and lunch . He has a bottle every 3 hours during day, total of 5.
He has always been an awful napper! He has a 30 minute nap at 10, 1 and 4.
I envy people who's babies nap for hours!

I found 5 months very transitional. At this point we were moving towards a 4 hour routine - specifically 4 hour EASY routine. However I found it 1 step forward, 2 steps back etc.

We didn't introduce solids until about a week before 6 months, just started with bits here and there, letting DS try (mainly sling on the floor) whatever we were eating. Then I introduced breakfast every day, then tea at 7 months and now we are up to 3 meals a day at 8 months. He has also very recently gone from 4 bottles to 3 per day.

When are naps on a 4 hour routine? I think 4hrly feeds would suit her but she's a 40 minute napper so often still has 4 a day.

My 5m old sleeps 630pm until 7am most nights (with the odd dummy wake up grrrrrrrr!) but sleeps badly in the day, I’m interested to follow this. I don’t mind re the day naps but would like her to have one around 330pm/4 so she could last until 7pm bedtime! We’re currently on 7oz milk every 3 hours in the day and the occasional bottle in the night. How many oz is everyone on?

Our current routine is broadly
Breastfeed in bed at 7
Up 7.30
Nap at 9ish
Breastfeed 10.30
Nap at 11.30/12ish
Breastfeed afterwards/1ish
Nap about 2.30
Breastfeed at 3.30/4
Catnap at 5
Breastfeed at 6.30
Bed 7-7.30
5oz bottle 10-11pm
Breastfeed around 3am

She's just started to have some food around 8am and 5.30pm.

Mine is offered 8oz 5 times a day and will massively fluctuate on the amount he takes, occasionally 4oz, mostly 6/7oz sometimes takes the full 8oz. But stretching it to every 3 hours was and is a struggle. He was on 8 bottles a day previously but has put on too much weight , has just dropped to 5 now he is sleeping through (6 when he decides to not sleep). I will see how his milk appetite goes as we increase the food intake. At the moment he just spits most of the food out and probably will do for a while!

On a 4 hour EASY maximum awake time was 2 hours. Sometimes he napped for 30 minutes, sometimes 2 hours, the key for me was to look for tired cues and put down for nap 2 hours after awake time, sooner if needed, especially during the transistion phase.

What does your day look like on a 4 hour easy routine?

At the time it was...

7am wake and bottle
9am nap
11am bottle
12:30 nap
15:00 bottle
16:30 short nap
19:00 bottle and bed.

He wasn't on this routine for long and soon starting moving towards the 2-3-4 routine. I knew he was ready for it when he started resisting and dropping his late afternoon nap. His routine is now:

7am wake and bottle
8:30am breakfast
9am nap
10:30 wake
12-12:30 lunch
13:30 bottle and nap
15:00 wake
16:30 tea
19:00 bottle and bed.

DD is 6mo next week. Been doing food for a couple of weeks and she's loving it. I'm breastfeeding. Timings are rough

7am up and feed
8.30 porridge
9.30 nap
10.00 feed
12.30 feed and nap 1.5 hrs
2.30 feed
4.30 nap
5.00 feed
5.30 dinner
7.00 feed and bed
10.30 feed
3am feed (though starting to drop this)