Around this time your baby is likely to laugh for the first time, squeal in delight and smile when you smile at them
Development
Your baby will still be learning hand-eye co-ordination and will use his mouth to explore objects. He will have become quite mobile although will most likely not be crawling yet, instead shifting backwards, forwards and sideways in small lengths.
Around this time your baby is likely to laugh for the first time, squeal in delight, smile when you smile at them and be able to hold his head up and raise himself up with his arms when on his tummy. He will also use his arms to physically communicate his needs, such as pushing away an unwanted bottle. If you watch your baby while he plays, you’ll be able to see him make conscious decisions about his toys as well as amusing herself with his own hands and feet.
Your baby can also pick up on your emotions, including happiness, sadness, love, concern, anxiety, and anger as he now sees and hears the world fairly well. At this age, about half of babies repeatedly babble, one syllable sounds and other consonant-vowel combinations — over and over. A few will even add another syllable or two, making their sounds more complex. Some babies may even be able to say two syllable sounds such as 'dada' or 'mama', and 'dada' is more likely to come first, as this is one of the earliest sounds babies can say easily.
Medical
By this time your baby may have experienced one of the common infancy illnesses babies are susceptible to, such as allergies, upper respiratory tract infections, fever, middle ear infection, reflux and urinal tract infections. Many of these illnesses can recur and it is important to observe your baby’s behaviour closely and see how much it differs from the norm. The easiest way to tell if your baby is sick is a change in his mood. If he turns fussy, or starts crying more than usual, you should be on the lookout for a problem. If he develops a fever (whether slight or high) you have another big clue. Ear infections tend to strike after a common cold or sinus infection, so keep that in mind too.
Sleep
Sleeping for a five hour stretch is considered to be sleeping through the night. Most will have learnt to sleep more at night than during the day, and can stay awake for 2-3 hours at a stretch. though they will still need two longish naps in the day time. Just because a baby sleeps for a long stretch one night does not mean that they will do it again the following night though – the majority will wake regularly for feeds. Getting a baby into a bedtime mood is more important at night and you will probably need to use a settling routine. By putting your baby to sleep after an extended period of being awake, changing their nappy and feeding them you are enabling them to sleep for longer, as they are less likely to wake up for any reason.
Though the typical baby in the fifth month takes three or four pretty regular naps of an hour or so each during the day, the number and length of each sleep is not as important as the total amount of sleep they should be getting, which is approximately fourteen and a half hours. Most babies can regulate their quota for sleep quite well so if your baby sleeps for less time than this and are contented they may just require less sleep than other babies. But longer naps can be encouraged by timing them perfectly when baby has been fed, his nappy has been changed and when there is unlikely to be any interruptions.
