It’s crazy to believe that five months have passed since your little one was born! This month is such an exciting month, because this is when you are going to start seeing your baby’s true personality and throughout all the giggles you are having this month, your little one is also hitting some pretty big milestones. Let’s dive into it!
At five months old, your baby has already achieved a lot, but this is only part of all of the amazing things they’ll accomplish throughout their growth! By now, your baby should be pretty well set in or at least well established in their daily routine, including sleeping, eating, and daily enrichment.
SLEEP:
By this stage of life, it is so important that you and your baby both are getting adequate amounts of sleep to make the most of your days! This means that establishing a sleep routine, which includes falling asleep unassisted, is so important for both you and your baby. As noted by the Nemours KidsHealth, most babies at five months old will sleep for at least 10-12 hours a night, with one or two wake ups for feeding in the night. On top of this, a baby should nap for three to five hours a day, broken up between two or three naps within the day [1].
Therefore, to make these sleep times go as smoothly as possible, for the mental wellness of you and your baby, it’s important to understand and respond to queues for when your baby is tired, such as rubbing eyes, crying after all needs are met, turning eyes away or looking away, and crankiness. On top of this, another excellent strategy for ensuring your baby’s sleep needs are met is trying methods which allow for unassisted sleep. Sleep training is one of the best methods to allow your baby to fall asleep and stay asleep without the assistance of you or a bottle [2]. This might take a lot of practice and dedication, but we assure that once this routine is established, your sleep and your baby’s sleep will benefit immensely for every huge milestone to come!
ENRICHMENT:
By five months old, your baby has probably begun to show a lot of personality, giggles, and begin to build the muscles they will use to roll over! At this age, your baby may begin to hit or have far exceeded the milestones that they should achieve this month. Whichever it may be, they are such important and exciting milestones for both you and your little one!
EXPRESSIONS:
At the five month old mark, your baby obviously won’t be talking yet, but their babbling and giggling is in full swing and they are beginning to express themselves. This will include sounds like “goo”, “ga”, "baba”, or "dada” when they are playing or you are sitting with them [3]. On top of this, their cries begin to vary and you are able to determine the difference between what their cry yearns for, such as a tired cry or a hungry cry. All of these expressions are gearing them towards one of the most exciting stage of a little one’s life–their first word!
MOVEMENT:
Babies at this stage are usually very focused on moving. This means they are exploring with rolling over, so they might grab onto you for support to roll over. They are eager to explore the world so this means they will start to move their body in new ways. Usually babies will roll from their tummy to their back first, with the opposite way following as the next step [4].
This is really important to build their neck and core muscles, which are needed to help them roll over on their own. On top of rolling, during tummy time, babies will begin to turn their head from left to right towards something of interest, now that they should be completely able to hold their head up [5]. These are all incredibly important for growing your baby’s muscles and getting one step closer to crawling!
Your baby also will begin to be able to grab items [6]. If you see your baby chewing on everything it can, don’t worry, it is completely normal for many reasons. They are using their hands to reach and grab these items and explore them, usually by using their mouth. Making sure you have safe objects for your baby which include multiple different shapes, textures, and densities, allows for their mouth muscles to be able to grow and be able to move objects from one side to another. On top of that, some babies will put objects in their mouth for teething. This is very common as the fifth month age is where teeth might begin to start popping through the gums, which can be an incredibly uncomfortable feeling to your little one [1]. Adding cool teething toys to your baby's daily routine can help subside the pain of teething!
GET EXCITED:
Your baby has accomplished so much for this stage of life and we are so proud of you for helping them achieve all these milestones. As your baby continues to grow and develop, we encourage you to make the most of these exciting times. Spend lots of quality time, take lots of pictures and videos, and most importantly, be proud of how much you and your baby have achieved together!
Works Cited:
Sleep and Your 4- to 7-Month-Old. (2022, July). Nemours KidsHealth. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/sleep47m.html
de Bellefonds, C. (2022, February). How to Sleep Train Your Baby. What to Expect. https://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/sleep/sleep-training-baby/#:~:text=That%20means%20baby%20is%20put,cycle%2C%20even%20for%20adults
Su, Y. E. (2014, March 11). The Acquisition of Logical Connectives in Child Mandarin. Language Acquisition, 21(2), 119–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2014.884568
L., Rolph, J., & Lovevery, T. (2020, May 21). Everything you need to know about babies and rolling. Lovevery. https://lovevery.com/community/blog/child-development/everything-you-need-to-know-about-babies-and-rolling/
N. (2023, December 5). What Do You Do If Baby Rolls Over During Tummy Time? Pathways.org. https://pathways.org/baby-rolling-over-during-tummy-time/
Narins, E. (2023, December 28). When Do Babies Start Grabbing Things? https://www.thebump.com/a/when-will-baby-start-grabbing
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