Thank you for your reply! And no worries, we've been winging it.
He hasn't ever gone to sleep independently. He does start falling asleep sometimes as soon as I begin to swaddle. Does that count?
I used to nurse him to sleep, but at the moment I give him a bottle, burp, give gas drops, and then lay him down. Most of the times his eyes are still open, but sleepy.
He does have reflux and we give him medicine 3 times a day for that with the last dose being right before bed time. It could be reflux or gas. I do hear him tooting sometimes throughout the night.
I have also found that he is not an efficient eater when I nurse. So he'd wake up hungry multiple times at night if I nurse at night time. Since I've switched to bottle feeding before bed and during night time feeds, he's been steadily improving his night time sleeps. The past 2 nights have been like this:
Bedtime - 7pm
Feed - 11pm and 3am
Wake and Feed - 7am
He was definitely overtired. The 7am-9pm schedule I was doing before was a very long day! I've also switched to this schedule that was suggested by my sister:
E - 7am
A - 7:15am
S -8:15am
E - 10am
A - 10:15am
S -11:15am
E - 1pm
A - 1:15pm
S -2:15pm
E - 4pm
A - 4:15pm
S -5:15pm
6pm - bath time routine
7pm - Nurse and bed time
Is that pushing the A time, like you suggested? Because sometimes now he wakes up during his daytime naps and will only get 45/hour long nap.
Hopefully, he continues this good night time routine of waking only 2 times at night. If it does, does that mean he will be ready to move to a crib? How can I help him learn to self-settle?