Our little spirited one just turned 4 months old one week ago. We spent two weeks getting her onto 4 hour EASY. She has never been a good sleeper, and we now seem to be having even more night wakenings and earlier morning awakenings. The "dream feed" especially has become an "awake feed", which she wakes earlier and earlier for!
Our old schedule was:
7am: wake, feed
8:30-10:00 nap
10am: feed
11:30-1:00 nap
1pm feed
2:30-4:00 nap
4:00 feed
5:00-6:00 nap
7pm feed
7:30-8:00 bath, swaddle
8pm bedtime
10:30pm dream feed
She always requires a pat-to-sleep about 40 minutes into her nap, and on this schedule was waking up between 1-2am for pat-to-sleep and at 4-5am for a snack, and sometimes waking at 6:30-6:45 am and playing in her crib. I breastfeed for 30 minutes at a time (both sides each feed), or if I am at work (have been back at work 3-4 days per week for 6 weeks), my husband feeds her 5-7 oz by bottle each feed.
On the new 4-hr EASY, we feed her at 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 7pm with 2 2-hr naps (9-11am and 1-3pm) and 1 1-hr catnap (5-6pm). We are putting her to bed at 7/7:30 rather than 8pm. The good thing is that she can now sometimes put herself to sleep on her own, but she is just waking more frequently. Now we are finding that she consistently wakes up twice between her bedtime and the dream feed, wakes up for the dream feed, still wakes up at the same times during the night as above, and is ALSO waking up at 6am blowing raspberries in her crib until we go get her up. Since she is up for a full hour before her 7am feed, she then can't remain awake until 9am for her nap, and we are fighting to keep from shifting the whole routine earlier and earlier each day.
Should we give up on the dream feed since she still can't seem to put together several hours of sleep in a row? Should we go back to an 8pm bedtime? My husband and I feel very sleep-deprived and grumpy, as we expected better sleep by now.
