LOL, you're not on ivillage boards are you? Those women are SO competitive with their babies' achievements.

Those women made me cry!
You mean your infants aren't already saying their ABC's? They can't count to 800 in spanish and english???? Your baby doesn't read YOU bedtime stories??
Ivillage mommies are definitely a competitive bunch!
To the OP, your baby is just fine! I would be shocked if your baby was talking at 5mths. That's not the normal timeline. (ok, my oldest started talking at 5mths...but it was weird then too!

)
sitting up on their own can be directly effected by how much tummy time they get. So many babies are sitting on their own much later than the 'experts' say they should because we no longer put our babies on their tummies to sleep. There is nothing wrong with a child who can't sit up unassisted for many more months.
My same child who was chattering away at 5mths didn't sit on her own until 9mths. She also didn't crawl until 10mths, she preferred rolling everywhere. She barely even crawled for a month before she switched to cruising and then walking. She is strong in her verbal development and at 10, language is still her strong point.
My other DD didn't start talking until very much later and didn't really speak 'english' until she was 3. She had her own language and was satisfied with that. But that DD was sitting early, crawling early and was cruising everywhere at 8mths. She didn't walk on her own though until after her first birthday! LOL She is strong in the physical part of her development, she's very physically active at all times.
My first son did all the physical things about the same timeline as DD#2 except speaking. He was speaking clearly by a year and is still more advanced in his speech than his older sister. He is very much my average child. I love that about him. I'm not constantly worrying about whether he needs to catch up on anything.
My last was my total anomaly, he spoke early, he walked at 10mths after crawling for many months prior. He's strong in both areas, physical/verbal so it can be problematic because he can think up new ways of terrifying me with his physical abilities....like jumping off the top step to the downstairs!

He was 6mths old when he figured out how to climb up and stand on the window sill and hang onto the window latches so he could look out the window!
