No routine

Our DS is 5 months old and has absolutely no routine. He mostly catnaps for 40 minutes during the day but can occasionally go up to 1 1/2 hours. My concern is that he does this at completely different times each day. He doesn't go down at around the same time each day. A part of this is that it's such a struggle to get him to sleep and sometimes he's so stubborn, I give up. I could spend a great deal of my day trying to get him to sleep at the same time I suppose but wonder if it's worth it. Should they have a routine at this age? He only just turned 5 months yesterday.

i've only ever followed my child, not a routine:)

It's entirely up to you if you want to follow a routine or not. Are you trying to put him down for a nap as soon as you see the tired signs. Since Nina turned 5 months she's dropped a nap during the day and is only having 2 naps a day now. I've tried following routines but unfortunately her naps are at different times of the day, depending on what time she wakes in the morning and how she slept the night before.
The only 'routine' I do like to do is when she's awake, I do the 'play/feed/play' routine, then put her to bed for a nap. The more I play with her, the more tired she gets and will gnerally sleep 1.5-2.5 hours at a time now.

I have tried all sorts of routines right up to now when Tarleha is 7mnths and i have finally given up and just follow her cue signs of being tired etc.
So basically what Joh said....follow my child not a routine.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

another one with no routine - following two very different babies ...:lol: the main thing is whether or not you and your child are happy with whatever pattern your day takes

I don't really have a routine with Caleb either. I just let him guide me for what he needs.
If I did have one it will be totally stuffed up next week because I'll have 2 kids at kinder :eek:

Nick always thrived on a routine (still does), but Ryan and Macauley make their own
When Ryan was a baby, he slept alot, so i let him, he demand fed and apart from his nightly bath, all he did was sleep for the first 6 months, he has a nap routine now, but he set it himself
Macauley is doing the same at the moment, he feeds and wants to go straight to sleep again, i know it will change in the next couple of months, but i am happy for him to lead me
Maybe you could try a routine for a while and see how he responds to it?

We have more a sequence than routine in this house, I by nature am a very routine driven person, I think it comes partly from being a teacher, so we do have a sense of routine to our household. The routine that Tori follows is pretty much set by her, she has 3 naps every day between 2 and 3 hours apart and she generally wakes up at about the same time each day. But as far as doing everything at the same time every day, we dont have a routine, things just get done in a general time for eg, bath after dinner and before bottle and bed.