This is my first post here and I would be very grateful to receive any suggestions as my husband and I are up constantly in the night at the moment and not sure what to do!
We had my almost 4 month old on a rough 3 hour EASY format, but we were waking him twice a night to breastfeed (but not a dream feed) due to weight issues until about a month ago.
We have recently introduced more formula and now that I know he is having enough food (he has put on lots of weight etc) we have introduced EASY more strictly. We were on the 3 hour schedule initially and are now closer to a 3.5 to 4 hour schedule (activity time is now between 1.5 hours (later in the day), but more often it is 1.75hours to 2hours).
My baby has always struggled to sleep by himself and since introducing the routine two weeks ago - his naps are longer and he goes off pretty well most time with up to about 5 mins of patting and shushing.
However, when it comes to the bedtime sleep he really fights it and we spend up to 2 hours trying to get him to sleep - sometimes I end up bouncing him a bit if he is too worked up or giving him a small breastfeed to calm him down.
If he does go down ok at around 7 - 7:30 he usually wakes up every hour until I give him his dreamfeed at about 11. I give him a big bottle at 7ish so I don't think it is hunger at least earlier in the evening.
If he wakes too closely to 10:30 - 11, or if he is still up after being unable to settle him, then I end up giving him his final feed (what would be the dream feed) and he goes to sleep for a 2 hours or so uninterrupted, but usually wakes up every hour or two crying until 7amish when we get him up. Sometimes it is just a matter of turning him over but other times he is inconsolable and after trying to pat shush for up to an hour I sometimes give him a small breastfeed at around 3/4am to make sure its not hunger. I will only feed him a max of twice a night, once at 11ish and once at 3amish, otherwise we pat shush/PU/PD. Most nights he wakes up now between 5 and 10 times a night and this has been since we've been doing EASY two weeks ago.
I realise that at 4 months babies have lots of changes so it could just be down to that, but if anyone has any tips on how to reduce the NWs, then pls let me know.
Yesterday's rough EASY was as follows:
3am - woke crying - shushed to sleep
3:30 - woke crying - shushed to sleep
5:30 - woke crying - shushed to sleep
Up at 6am as nappy was soaked and on jumpsuit and had been down since 7:15pm the night before
A - 6am - nappy change
E - 6:10-6:50 - small breastfeed + 100 mls of expressed milk - very distracted, but fed in darkened bedroom and still difficult
A - 6:50 - 7:40
S - 7:40 - 9:10 (1.5 hours)
A - 9:10 - 10:00
E - 10:00 - 10:30 - small bf +150mls formula
A - 10:30 - 11:00
S - 11:00 - 12:20 (1 hr 20 mins)
A - 12:20 - 13:30
E - 13:30 - 13:50 - breastfeed +130 mls of formula
A - 13:50 - 14:10
S - 14:10 - 15:40 (1.5 hours)
A - 15:40 - 17:00
E- 17:00 small bf + 70 mls expressed milk
S- 17:25 - 18:00 (35 mins)
A 18:30 - 19:00 bath then 180mls of formula
19:00 - wind down, then cot at 19:20 as was grizzly
S - 20:00 - 20:30 - woke crying/pat shushed to sleep
woke at 21:30 - lots of crying, pat shushed for ages, then ended up giving next feed of 180mls at 10:30 and he fell asleep
woke at 2am - crying
woke at 2:30am - crying - swaddle off
woke at 4am - changed nappy as soaked and bf fed
woke at 5:30 - crying
woke at 6:30 - crying
woke at 7:15 - crying
Pls let me know if you have any suggestions on how we can improve things. Maybe drop the dreamfeed and see what happens? We've been doing it for almost two weeks now and no real signs of changes/improvements.
THANK YOU