5 month old schedule

I regret not keeping a record of Vincent's schedules and routines. Although I do a whole lot less research on where Kate should be at 5 months, I still rack my brain trying to remember what Vincent was doing at this age.

When I need a helping hand with short naps, baby's sleep needs, number of naps, lengths of nap, suggest wake time, etc. I go to these sources:

Troublesome Tots
Baby Sleep Schedule
On Becoming Baby Wise
Baby Sleep- What is Normal

So for your own comparison, but mostly for my future haggard self after baby 3+, here's Kate's 5 month sleep and eating schedule:

0830-0900: Kate wakes up and eats, then plays until naptime (play mat, exersaucer, tummy time, reading books, go for walk, practice standing, sing songs, get squished by big brother, etc.)
1100: Swaddle, white noise, & paci. Sing a song and put Kate down, falls asleep by self
1300: Kate wakes up from nap and eats
1500: Down for 2nd nap
1700: Wakes up, nurse
1800: Feed Kate small portion of solid food (purees)
1830: On T, Th, Sat give bath
1915-1930: Nurse, put to bed
2300: Dream feed

Of course, she has many off days where she takes shorter naps or get tired early and veers from the schedule. We are in the process of transitioning to two naps, as shown above. When she takes three naps her days look like this:

0830-0900: Kate wakes up and eats, then plays until nap time
1100: 1st nap: Swaddle, white noise, & paci. Sing a song and put Kate down, falls asleep by self.
1230: Kate wakes up "early" from nap and eats between now and 1300
1430: 2nd nap
1600: Wakes up"early"
1630-1700: If showing signs of hunger I'll nurse her before the 4 hour mark but I like to wait until 1700 if happy
1800: 3rd nap
1900: If not already awake, wake Kate so she won't stay up too late
1930: Feed Kate small portion of solid food (purees)
1945: On T, Th, Sat give bath
2015-2030: Nurse, put to bed
2300: Dream feed

The second schedule is a little more typical for us right now. I'm happier than a monkey with a banana when she has a two nap day, but she's happy either way.

She is starting to take an even shorter 2nd nap. Instead of 1.5-2 hours she's having days where the nap only lasts 45 minutes. She had this problem when she was 3-4 months old. We extended her schedule from a 3 hour to a 4 hour routine, which fixed her napping issues. Now that it's happening again I'm adding solid foods to her diet in case she's waking up from hunger. It's also possible that she needs to start extending her daytime wake periods.

Wouldn't it be nice if babies could talk to us and tell us what they need? Or better yet, if we could read their minds. I'll keep dreaming. Until then, we'll continue to do what every parent does: change her schedule around multiple times and when she finally gets it right give ourselves undue credit.