Dream feed and 4am wake up questions

[lazfam]

DS is 5.5 weeks old. He'll b 6 weeks on Wednesday next week. The first week he spent in the NICU. When we brought him home, because I wanted to establish my milk supply we did nursing on demand about every 2 hours until I had adequate supply. Even though it was about every 2 hours, I still did EASY. Eat, activity, sleep...in that order to get that habit down. Since then, he's been on about a 3 hours EASY schedule. I'm not really sure what his temperment is.  When he wakes at night, he makes the cough sound 2x and then WAAAAAA, very loudly but stops immediately when I pick him up to feed him. He's pretty easy to soothe, and is starting to put himself to sleep for naps. He is now about 11.5 lbs, BTW. I'm just trying to give all the info.

So, generally, I feel very lucky with him.
His routine is about this
E-7am
A
S -8:15-10am

E 10am
A
S -11:15am -1pm

E 1pm
A
S 2:15-4pm

E 4pm
A
S 5:15-6pm

E 6pm
A Bath, Massage, Jammies
E 7:15pm
S 7:30pm

DF 10pm

E 12:15
S 1am
E 3:15
S 4am
E or soothe 5:30
E or sooth 6:30am
E 7am (start the day again)

So, my questions are...
1) It's almost like the dream feed doesn't even impact him. He just sucks it down and still wakes up 2 hours later. Are we doing it wrong?
2) He seems to not settle well after he goes back to sleep at 4am. When he wakes after that I try to soothe him with the paci, which is generally me sleeping next to his cosleeper holding it in until he falls back asleep. If that doesn't work I offer him my breast, and he'll usually nurse for about 5-8 minutes and fall back asleep. I'll put him down and he'll wake 30-60 minutes later.

I'd rather not have my night of broken sleep end at 4am. For me and my family, and my issues with PPD...sleep is the key. I'm, like most moms, wanting to do whatever I can to encourage him to sleep well at night.

Would it help to shorten his morning nap and cluster feed him 7 and 9am instead? Should we move his dream feed out to 11pm? If we didn't dream feed him, he'd wake at 11pm. That is his longest stretch of sleep. 7:30-11pm. 2x he's slept to 12:30 and then 1:00am. But, in reviewing his routine that day, there was nothing different about his day.

Thoughts? Advice?
Thanks!!

[beckygatt]

Sounds like you're doing pretty well! When my lo was about that age I tried cluster and dream feeding but they never made her sleep any longer and she still hasn't STTN. In fact 6 months on I've now decided to give up on the DF and after I put her to bed I just wait for her to wake up before feeding. I became concerned that by feeding her before she demanded it I might actually be encouraging more frequent night wakings. On the other hand mine is quite a bit older so might be worth giving cluster feeds a try before writing them off! My baby often went through phases of remaining awake after a night feed and unfortunately, as unpleasant as it is, there's not much that can be done about it! She often did it around the time she'd reach a developmental milestone so perhaps that is it. Good luck!

[brenda2]

it's a tough age.

you are doing your best for your lo by encouraging independent sleep and following the EASY routine.  they just need to eat lots and around the clock at this age unfortunately for us!  i would try it without the df, some los do better without it, and see what he does overnight.

but your routine looks good.

at that age my lo was doing E at 7:30, 12:30, 3:30 and up for the day at 6:30.  sometimes she would actually be up at 5 and sleep on and off between 5 and 6.  if we did the df she was still up at 12:30 to eat so i just didn't bother with it.