Inside: A sample 5 month schedule and all you need to know about this tricky age as it relates to feeding and sleep.
- The Ultimate Newborn Sleep Schedule: Week By Week
- A Sample Newborn Routine That Works Every Time
- The 3 to 6 Month Routine That Makes For Happy Babies
I am not into fortune telling… but I bet I can read your mind right now.
If you have a 5 month old baby…
And you are Googling routines and schedules and sleep help…
Then you came to the right place.
This is where I tell you that 5 months is hard. Babies who used to sleep well might have gone through the 4 month sleep regression just in time to come to the 5 month conundrum.
Take heart… you’ve got this.
Get my cheat sheets and find your family’s groove. Chore, independent play, meal, nap, bedtime, and MORE routine ideas!
What's in this post...
A Sample 5 Month Old Schedule Your Baby Will Love
So I’m going to give you a sample routine you can follow at this age, and then break things down to key components to help you get a grasp of what’s happening at this age.
It has worked for all 5 of my babies and – I hope – it’ll work for yours too.
Here’s a sample schedule for a 5 month old baby
7:00 am – wake up for the day, eat, play
8:30 am – nap
10:00 am – wake, eat, play
11:30 am – nap
1:00 pm – wake, eat, play
2:30 pm – nap
4:00 pm – wake, eat, play
5:00 – 5:30 pm – catnap
7:00 pm – bath, bedtime routine, eat, down for the night
10:00 – 11:00 pm (within that time) – last feed of the night (dream feed) if desired
11:00 pm – 7:00 am – night feeds as desired
Some notes on this routine:
- 5 months is often a hard month. Sometimes there’s a regression and it’s a good time to break out the baby log if you have one, to see what’s happening.
- Play at this age mainly consists of tummy time or time with family.
- Some mothers prefer a morning bath and others an evening bath, just fit it in wherever you prefer. Note: babies don’t need a baby daily and that may even dry out their skin.
- If baby wakes up from a nap and doesn’t seem particularly hungry (you’ll know this if baby isn’t crying or fussy), simply wait until the normal feeding time to feed. Or, if baby wakes up hungry, then feed baby and try to keep the routine if you can.
Read: 7 Simple Reasons Why Your Baby Won’t Nap & What To Do
The Main Thing To Keep In Mind with Babies At 5 Months Of Age
There is something that cannot be understated at this age: your baby is hungry and getting hungrier every day.
In years past pediatricians encouraged us to start baby on some gentle solids at 4 months of age.
That’s no longer the case.
Now it’s 6 months.
While that has changed, this fact remains the same… by 6 months of age baby will need some solids throughout the day to meet their nutritional needs.
This means at 5 months their bodies are gearing up for more food. And they are more hungry. And need more nutrient rich breast milk.
Thus sleeping and sometimes moods will suffer.
Behaviors You Might See In 5 Month Olds
- More fussy, irritable, and whiny than normal
- Seems starving all the time
- Has disrupted sleep or irregular sleep patterns
Solution?
Feed baby often and do not despair.
Easy to implement routines, rhythms and schedules from birth through school-aged kids to help you streamline day-to-day life with kids, including a step-by-step guide for getting started.
Learn MoreHow To Keep A Consistent Routine Despite Interruptions
Now, at this age many babies can sleep through the night. It’s not a bad age for sleep training.
That may or may not be something you want tackle now, but either way I can’t understate the importance of a good routine.
You can use the one above or another from my Big Book Of Routines, but either way, find a good daily rhythm and stick with it.
- If you haven’t already, start some wind down routines that’ll help baby sleep well at naps and nighttime.
- Start a regular morning wake time that works well with your family’s morning rhythm.
- Get a steady baby bedtime routine happening.
Related Read:
- Foolproof Baby Sleep Tips — Routines, Habits & Strategies
- Want An Easy Baby? Then Use A Foolproof Baby Schedule
Set The Stage For Solids
So, within the next month or so (American Academy Of Pediatrics suggests 6 months of age) baby will begin to need more solids. There’s also a chance – if you are nursing – that baby’s milk needs will change.
You may have a slightly lower supply than will meet baby’s current hunger demands and something similar to cluster feeding may help that.
One question you may be asking is this…
Is it okay to introduce solids at 5 months old?
Well, it depends.
I would answer to go with what your pediatrician says. However, you can still do a lot right now to help prepare your baby for what’s to come.
Here’s how to help get your 5 month old baby ready for the big milestone ahead:
Get my cheat sheets and find your family’s groove. Chore, independent play, meal, nap, bedtime, and MORE routine ideas!
- Let baby sit with the family at the dinner table. Baby will be able to see you all eat and may even watch your food and mouth as you chew. This is a sign of readiness!
- Give baby a chance to practice their pincer grasp. Put cheerios, pieces of bread, or some other safe alternative onto their high chair so they can begin to practice. Since they do not need solids nutritionally yet, they can just use this as an opportunity to start practicing the life skill they’ll need to feed themselves.
- Help them perfect sitting up. When babies get to around 6 months of age (or when they begin sitting up) reflux symptoms often disappear. This is because the lower esophageal sphincter matures and allows food to go down, but not come back up. Babies need to be able to sit up fairly well to be stable in the high chair to eat solids.
Sources:
Take our 3 day challenge to create life-giving family, child, and self-care routines.
Learn More::
Thanks for your interesting blog.
What if baby doesn’t sleep for the duration shown on the schedules – in fact, unpredictable nap length from day to day?
Is it better to stick to the actual nap times OR focus more on the awake time between naps?
This 5mth schedule shows all of the naps as 1.5hr duration, I’m not so lucky with my little one! Seems a random question, but how do you control the duration – or is this not so important?
Okay so you can’t control the duratino, but if they have a nap and wake up and are fairly content, keep to the routine and feed at normal time. If they wake up and are fussy and starving, feed and then try again with the routine. Hope that helps!
Hi and thanks for this schedule. It seems to be working for my little one but I the putting them down at bedtime is still a challenge. I would love some clarification about what time they should actually be asleep for the night. So you start the bedtime routine at 7pm, so they are asleep by about 7.30 – 8pm?
Yes, that will work OR if you want him asleep by 7pm I’d do wind down and bedtime routine by 6:40 or 6:45pm.
Thank you for sharing the schedule. My 5 month old goes to sleep easily on his own but wakes after 35-40 minutes every. Single. Time. For naps and at when I put him down at night. How do I keep a schedule for him if he is only sleeping that long? I’ve tried waiting 20 minutes after he wakes up to see if he settles back to sleep, but he has never been able to move to that next sleep cycle. So he just becomes more and more overtired as the day progresses. There isn’t any pacifier or sleep association he is missing from when he first fell asleep, I’m at a total loss. Wake windows are always about 90 minutes to an hour. He doesn’t act hungry right when he gets up either and can usually wait 20 minutes before he shows hunger cues. Did you experience this with any of your kids? Any advice to teach him to get past that 40 minute mark?
Sara, this is such a common thing actually. It’ll usually pass as they take fewer naps and the naps become longer in duration so that’s the good news first. So what happens is that he will wake up after 45 minutes then stay awake another 20 or so and feed then fall to sleep so quick that he isn’t getting proper wake time after feeds before nap? Then progressively he gets more and more tired? Is there any place specifically he WILL take long naps? Like int he car or in your arms, etc.?
My baby does this same thing! He’ll be 5 months next week. Any nap in his crib is 45 minutes max, but he wakes up happy and will stay awake for an hour to an hour and a half before showing sleepy cues. He’ll nap for a full 2 hours in my arms.. Any suggestions for helping him nap longer on his own?
My 5 month old wakes at different times each morning. If I stick to the schedule then if he wakes at 5am he will be going to bed at 5pm ish. Do I just lengthen the last nap or put him to bed early?
My 5.5 month old now only naps on me and only for 20mins, he’s just now gone from 1-2 wake ups a night and straight back to sleep to awake every 2 hours Ti start then unable to settle back to from there on no matter what I do. I’ve resorted to co-sleeping so I am getting more than 1 hour sleep a night. Should I be forcing independent sleep right now and sleep training despite the disrupted sleep for everyone or wait until this passes?
Would this routine work if I just pushed everything by an hour later? It would work better for our family and baby is already on an 8pm bedtime just need to fix the rest of the routine for better naps.
8pm bedtimes are still okay, yes, as long as baby isn’t super overtired by bedtime.