@thomasleonard Every baby is different. My almost 5 month old baby:
- Naps are consolidating to 2 longer naps/day. I don't want to jinx myself, but her naps have increased to 1.5 - 2.5 hours on average. This has been a *great* relief. Previously, she was taking 3-5 naps/day. Some of those naps were only 20-40 min long. Oftentimes, it would take us 1.5 hours to try to get her down for a 30 min nap.
- Longer wake windows. 2+ hours on average.
- Easier to put down for naps. She still feeds to sleep, and has recently completely rejected all pacifiers, so those are things we still need to work on. For now, we are just super relieved that her napping has gotten so much better.
- Night time routines/sleeping are more or less the same. We do an evening walk in the stroller, bath/lotion, bedtime book, cuddles, a bottle, and then bed. She sleeps from 8pm-7am +/- 1 hour for bedtime/wake up time. She usually wakes up 2-3 times/night, but I suspect this is due to us feeding her to sleep/her wanting a bottle when she wakes up between sleep cycles. She doesn't even really drink milk at night, just wants the bottle in her mouth for comfort when she wakes up.
- She has started purees. Only a few teaspoons at a time. Hasn't really changed her sleeping, but she now looks at us with this, "What are you eating? Why aren't you giving me some?" face whenever we eat.
- I never sleep trained her. I bed-shared and contact napped with her when I needed to. She used to be a velcro baby but now she prefers cuddling and then being put in her crib so she can toss and turn as she pleases. Game changer. We are still working on getting her to fall asleep on her own in her crib, without cuddling or without a bottle, but I am not in a rush.
- She needs more stimulation during her wake windows. Not just rotating her toys or increasing her floor time, but social and environmental stimulation as well. She needs to be taken out every day, at least for a walk. She also loves hanging out in the yard or the park. She loves being outside. She also loves "talking". She babbles and expects you to converse with her. Constant eye contact. Much more interactive and alert.
- More mobile. My baby hit her gross milestones early so far, so she can roll, army crawl, and is doing a regular baby crawl now as well. We got her a baby play pen, gates, etc to keep her safe, but are working on baby proofing the house every weekend.
- Longer times where she can play 'independently'. She can keep herself occupied with her toys for up to 30 min. Usually more like 10-20 minutes.