Wow that is awesome about the sleep!!! you could try and see how it goes without doing any more intervening. maybe he will just keep sleeping longer and longer. it sounds like he is beginning to learn to sleep on his own at the beginning of the night, so that is a big step. you can just wait it out and see if he starts doing the same when he wakes at night. honestly, this is probly what i would do, just because i like to avoid sleep training when i can. call me lazy!
for example, gianna had a double ear infection a couple of weeks ago and was so sick on top of it. needless to say, our nights for a few days were absolutely horrible. but then her antibiotics started working so her night wakings decreased. but she was still waking up once or twice per night. i would go in and hold her til she was fully asleep, which only took a min or two. this went on for about a week more. i sort of wondered if i should try sleep training her to break the bad habit we had gotten into, but then decided to wait a few more days. and she stopped the waking on her own. i think that she still was in some discomfort at night, so i really didn't want to push the issue, ya know?
however, if the wakings start increasing again and you don't want to bf him, i think that you will just have to pick a method and stick to it. he will definitely get irate and it will definitely take you longer to get him back to sleep than if you bf him. but that is just because he is getting a repsonse that he isn't used to. he is mad because he expects to be bf and you aren't doing it! but i think that you will have a couple nights of hell with this procedure, then gradually he will get better. it usually only takes a few days for them to realize that it is now their job to put themselves back to sleep. now that you know he techinically can go at least 7 hours without eating, at least you can rest assured you're not starving him or anything.
keep me posted on your progress!! good work!
