5 month old Babies

Hello. I haven't been on this for ages and had a question for other mums (or dads) who have babies around my age. Marnie is 19weeks old and still breast fed. I was wondering what other babies this age routines were like (i know this could change any day.) Marnie seems to have settled really well for her night time and morning sleeps and will also go down quite well for her 1 o'clock sleep (even thought it's only a 40 minute sleep) but still needs to be 'settled' to sleep for her afternoon. She is my first baby and I hope I am doing okay. My community health nurse thinks she should be going down for two two hour sleeps during the day with two hours each sleep.
I'd love to hear how other babies Marnie's age are sleeping and if there sleeping through the night - Marnie has only one - two nights ago -- I woke up all night......

Renee, I think she is doing fine. Are you happy with how things are going or are you unsure? Every baby will have different sleeping patterns and some will have a two hour sleep and others like Marnie will only have short sleeps. I think your MCHN has put a little too much pressure on you by saying how long she *should* be sleeping for. If she is happy and you are happy with the way things are, then let it be.

How long does she sleep for during her morning sleep?

About an hour and a half - thanks for your reply. I am happy with how she is going and she is really happy as well so I don't have anything to worry about. I just want to know what other babies her age are up to as all the babies around me seem to be still 'baby babies' if you know what i mean - they seem to be asleep all the time and Marnie is up and about.

If she is having a sleep that long in the morning, she just may not need the longer sleep in the afternoon. My kids all liked to be awake and see the worlds too at that age.

You're doing a great job Renee and it sounds like Marnie is a lovely little baby.

Thank you - your a treasure. She does like to be up and about so that probably explains it all.

Honestly, they are all so so different at this age!

Charlie, at 5 months, had a morning sleep for around 1.5 hrs, and then an afternoon nap of about 40 mins, and to be honest, he still does that.

Whereas Olivia at 5 months was having a 2 hour morning nap and then a 3 hour afternoon nap!!

They both started sleeping through at 4 months, but were in hammocks rather than cots, which helps.

But one of the girls in my Mummies group.......her little man is 5 months at the moment and he is on 3 sleeps a day (all 40 min naps) and he still wakes at least twice through the night.

So it really does vary.......

Honestly, it sounds to be like you and she are both doing great!

Thanks everyone! Imogen is sleeping beautifully

moving to General baby and Toddler Discussion...

Our routine changes every day!! Only thing I do every day is get her to bed at 7/7.30pm. Then it depends. She did three months of sleeping 7-3.30am-5.30am so she'd wake between 3.30 and5.30, was fantastic, but last two weeks waking all the time. So in the morning she might rise any time between 5am-7am, then her next sleep would be a couple of hours later. She has been having 2 hour sleeps in morn for last few weeks, prob because of crap nights.
Then she'll have one or two half hour sleeps later. That's it. And the other day she had a short morn sleep and then 1.5 hour from 12.30-2pm. I then kept her up until bed.
She settles pretty well and has a breast feed usually every 3-4 hours, but I top her up with breast or formula before each sleep. THen after 4pm it's feeding pretty much every hour until bed (and I give her 200ml formula just before bed). Im now giving her two solids a day, whenever I can fit them in.
I have a 7 year old, so I can't have routine with Coco. I figure when she's doing three meals a day, i will prob start a three meals a day, 2 snacks routine.
Sounds like you're doing fine, they'reall different anyway. This just works for us at the moment!
lxoxo

I was chatting about this to other mums in my mg and our mhcn says the same thing - up 2h down for 2h.

We all laughed because we haven't met one person who's baby follows this - hehehe!

I had all the same concerns and it is only now I can see how silly it is to expect such things from a bubba!

Sounds like your doing an excellent job!

Milo is 5 and a half months, and h rarely sleeps for longer than 1.5 hours during the day.
Occasionally he does surprise me with a 2h+ nap, but not very often.

He usually settles OK for the first sleep in the morning, normally 1 hour, and will sometimes settle for the second one, which varies from 40min+

Sometimes I will get another 1 or 2 from him but these are rarely longer than 20-40mins.

Night time he's getting harder to settle lately, he used to feed to sleep but not usually now.

He is never awake and not tired for 2 hours at a time, should he be?

Usually he's pushing to make it to 1.5 hours of awake time before he's tired and needs a nap.

Rachael - Louis is only now staying up 2 - 2 1/2 hours at a time. He only lasted about 1 1/2 hours at that age as well.....

Renee - I agree... sounds like Marnie is going brilliantly! Every baby is different. I think Gab was having two sleeps at that age?? I can't really remember when we dropped from 3 sleeps to 2, LOL! And it wasn't that long ago! I'm pretty sure she would have been doing 2 sleeps by then... one in the morning and one in the afternoon. She was pretty text-book for a while, sleeping 2, sometimes 3 hours at a time. Actually, the afternoon one was a bit of a pain because she'd sleep for aaaaaggges and not wake up until 6-7pm. But, I guess with one child, you can get away with them going to bed later in the night (it suited us).

My advice would be to take what the "experts" say with a grain of salt. If Marnie is happy, feeding well, sleeping well, weeing and pooing, putting on weight etc. then what's the problem?? Just rely on your instinct... you'll know when something isn't right!

Hi Renee.

DS's sleeping pattern is VERY similar to Marnie's.
He is about 2 weeks olders i think (born Nov 29th).
He is also breastfed.
He sleeps through the night mostly, wakes up early and doesn't does a 1.5 hour sleep around 11am and then does a 40 min sleep later in the afternoon. on the odd occassion he will slip in an extra nap late afternoon, but only if he has a restless night (i think he is teething).
He seems happy, i'm happy...
DD was different. She would wake up early and have a 2 hour sleep at 11am and then a 3 hour sleep later in the afternoon.
They are not preprogrammed. Each child is different. I would only be worried if your baby seems OVERLY sleepy, or particularly distressed.

funnily enough, I seem to have lost my catnapping, up all night baby and been replaced with a little treasure that wakes at 7 goes back at 9 wakes at 11 goes back at 1 wakes at 3, has a small 40 min nap at 5 and sleeps from 7 to 7.

This has been going on now for nearly 2 weeks,

Where has my baby gone??? I think I like this one better. (touching lots of wood)

Clare