I've read some similar stories to mine in the forums...I'm hoping someone out there will have a resolution.
So we put our baby on EASY a few weeks ago, weaned the paci (which was a huge sleep prop), and moved toward a 4 hour schedule. It's easy to write, it was HARD to do. I feel like his naps are generally better. In fact in the last few days he's been able to put himself to sleep for most naps without crying (some whining maybe, but generally no fits). We are still working to get the first two naps to full length - a lot of times he'll only do an hour for one or the other instead of the 1.5 - 2 hours we'd like.
The real issue is nightwakings. I feel like he just goes through the motions for eating during the day (I feed him RIGHT after he wakes up, dark room, all that), but he generally gets distracted after a few minutes. I think this might be at the root of our nightwaking problems.
I was going to try to implement a dreamfeed once we had EASY going pretty well, but he has been waking up only a couple hours after I put him down, before I would even think about going in for a dream feed...this is a major regression as around 2-3 months he was regularly doing a 5 or even 6 hour stretch after being put down for the night.
After that first waking, it's generally not much better all night. Every 2-3 hours at best, sometimes more like 1.5-2 hours. I read about 4-month sleep regressions and growth spurts and took the advice to feed him. This coincided with us going to my parents for Christmas, which worked out because I didn't want him crying and waking the whole house. I think there were even one or two 5 hour stretches in the five nights we were there, which was encouranging at first. Once we got home, he had a doctors appointment and shots, and sleeping at night went back to crap. Even if I feed him at every waking (which I'm sure is too much), the stretches are very short. Night before last he went down at 7:45, woke at 10, 12, 1, 2:30, 3:30, and 5 and pretty much stayed awake at 5. Last night was about the same, but he did sleep from 5:30 to 7 in the morning.
What can I do to get him to eat more during the day so he'll need less at night? How do I get these nightwakings under control? PU/PD was a complete nightmare when we tried it, plus I read that it's not good for reflux (which he has). We do shush/pat but it generally only works if he is upright (on my shoulder) and he often falls asleep immediately when calm out of sheer exhaustion, so I don't have a chance to set him down awake and I feel like it's becoming a prop.
