starting EASY at 4 months, confused about feeding during the night

[kentmom29]

Hi, I've just bought the BW - Solves all your problems, and we're going to start tomorrow getting out little boy who is 4 months in 5 days onto the 4 hour routine. At the moment he is feeding every 3 hours in the day but only for 5/10 minutes maximum at a time and also feeds every 3 hours in the night but as he's sleepy he'll feed for 20/30 mins. This is what prompted me to find a solution so he'll feed more during the day and sleep through again at night (He used to only have one feed between 7pm-7am!)

What I don't understand is firstly whether I need to use the plan on p.43 to get him on the EASY 4 hour or if I should use the plan on p.230 which is getting him from 3 hours to 4 hours. Although he's currently feeding roughly every 3 hours I've not been "officially" following the EASY routine.

Secondly I'm not sure what to do about the night feeds? My husband is going to do the dream feed at 10.30pm, then normally he would wake at 1.30am and 4.30am for a feed. The plan on p.43 seems to suggest we should just PU/PD if he wakes at all between 11pm and 7am, but it seems a lot to expect to get him to go from what he's doing now to an 8 hour stretch? I have already tried using a dummy and/or feeding him only for the minimum to get him back to sleep which is between 5-10 mins. He is EBF.

Any help much appreciated. Thanks 

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi and welcome to BW!

I wouldn't jump to a 4h EASY straight away and I also wouldn't look at the cycle as a 4h cycle, but rather the right A time for him + a good nap, which will equal his EASY cycle. I don't have the book with me right now but I would suggest you start with the routine you have now, i.e. 3h and increase A times gradually. You can do that by increasing 10-15min A time every 3-4 days till you get good naps, baby is not OT and the cycle is approx. 4h (some babies do a bit less, some babies do a bit more). Increasing his A times will push his naps as well and therefore the feeding and hopefully he will feed more.
Saying that, I wouldn't expect him yet to STTN even if he used to do it. Babies change and grow and their night needs change as well. If he STTN then great, but I wouldn't "pressure" him to do so at this age.
3NF is what we also had at that age and my DS was FF by then. EBF babies take much longer till they can go long stretches at night without a feed.
For now I would keep NF as they are and wouldn't try to wean any of them.