I apologise for the essay below......
We've now gone with feeding him when he first wakes during the night, which usually falls soon after midnight (so about 4/5 hours after his last feed).
He then wakes up again around 3/4am, and nothing settles him so we feed again. He then starts waking for the day at around 6am but at this point I use the dummy to try & get him back to sleep until 7/7.30am.
At his night feeds, he takes maybe 1 or 2oz less than he'd usually take during the day.
When we start the day at 7/7.30am, he's not really hungry and takes a small feed. Should we move his routine right so that he takes a good feed a bit later in the morning? I've been trying to keep his feeds & naps times as consistent as possible and on occasions, this means waking him up by 7.30am which maybe isn't wise?
He definitely isn't waking from wind, though this did happen a few nights ago after he took a huge feed before bed. We winded him and at this point it was 10pm, so I tried him with a feed and he then skipped the midnight feed at woke at 3.30am and then slept till his usual time. One thing that has crossed my mind is waking him to fed before my partner goes to bed and see if he again drops the midnight feed, what do you think? We tried dream feeding but that didn't work. One night feed would be A.M.A.Z.I.N.G
With regards to the dummy, I only use this during naps and not during the night. I try and fight him to take naps without (!!!) but as soon as the dummy goes in, he starts to drift off. He won't go past 40 minute naps without W2S (though this isn't always successful), and it's variable if I have to replug the dummy. Sometimes it will still be in, other times he's actually woken and I replug it to get him back to sleep, sometimes he doesn't need it.
I have tried unswaddling him on the times that he's really fought it but only during naps, but he will wake after 40 minutes so I'm not sure if he's quite ready yet as he still startles easily. We only swaddle him arms. Is this something that we should perservere with for a minimum of 3 days?
Our routine is now like this......
E: 07.30 (4oz)
A: 08.00
S: 09.15
E: 11.30 (5oz)
A: 12.00
S: 13.30
E: 15.15 (5/6oz)
A: 15.30
S: 16.30
E: 18.00 (3/4oz)
A: Bath
E: 19.00 (5/6oz)
S: 19.30
One of the other difficulties we have is when he does only nap for 40 minutes, his routine goes a bit off. For example today, his morning nap lasted 45 minutes, so until 10am. I still fed him at 11.30am, but he's tired and is now napping from midday. Is this right, or should I keep him up longer so his nap remains at a consistent time?
When he does wake up during the night his eyes are usually closed but he's very upset (no tears though). If we don't respond quickly, he does fully wake himself which was why we were previously using the dummy to settle him quickly rather than feeding him.