Hello and welcome to BW forums
And congrats...not long to wait now!
You'll find here that we've all done slightly different things, we all have different experiences and there isn't one perfect "right" answer other than to respect your baby which is at the heart of BW.
1) In her first book, she mentions to start the EASY routine around 4wks, but in her Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems book, she encourages to start right when baby gets home from the hospital.
My own experience was that I had not discovered BW until my LO was 4.5 wks old when someone gave me a BW Top Tips book. I started right away. Up until that point I'd been doing a mixture of surviving, and using Harvey Karps 5 S approach to calm baby and get him to sleep (his methods are considered here to be in line with Tracy's ethos and many parents here have used his methods alongside Tracy's) but I didn't have a routine as such.
At 4wks you might be more able to observe and record LOs EAS times (the eat activity and sleep parts of the EASY routine) and begin to gently settle into a routine of maybe 2.5hrly E, or even 3hrly, depending on your baby. If you begin day 1 you are unlikely to get 3hrly E times or predictable naps but there are many aspects of BW which you really can start right off, such as respect, talking to baby, telling baby what is happening now and next, beginning to put down for naps or for some naps if not all, the thing is not to worry about it and not to have too high expectations.
I would go so far as to say you can even start before baby is born - I sang the same song regularly whilst pregnant and the day my DS was born, after he'd had a sleep the crying started, this key song was the thing that calmed him almost instantly. You could even start patting your bump now so he associates the patting with comfort. I also introduced my DS's lovely the day he was born, a muslin square which I popped on my shoulder every time I held him, popped around him like a bib when I fed him, had near his face when I cuddled him, burped him etc. He built a very early and powerful bond with his muslin (of which I have many so they are easy to wash and it never matters if one is lost) and to this day he takes a small one in his trouser pocket to school, when he needs extra comfort it is there. I think in the BW books Tracy suggests introducing a lovey much later, but that doesn't have to be 'the rule' (of course I never left my young baby with his lovey to sleep as per SIDS guides).
The thing to keep in mind whether you begin day 1 or wk 4 is that EASY is a routine rather than a timed schedule. You follow the routine, eat then activity then sleep rather than expecting it all to come at a set time. In the very early days your LO will likely fall to sleep eating and you can either let that continue until 4 weeks (or later, whenever you are ready) or you can slowly gradually begin to keep LO awake a minute or two after the feed, then a bit longer until LO no longer feeds to sleep.
Should I be cluster feeding and dreamfeeding right away? Has anyone done that?
I actually don’t remember much about the cluster feeding from my LOs early days but there will be others who can expand on this.
I did the 'dream feed' right from the start but my DS decided he wouldn't feed in his sleep so for us this meant he had an awake feed although I always thought of it as a DF, he ate had a nappy change and went right back to sleep.
Napping- should it ALWAYS be done in his crib in his nursery during the day?
SIDS guides now say that LO should sleep in the room where you are. This would mean in the living room for naps during the day and in a crib in your room at night. As Tracy is no longer with us she has no opportunity to make changes to her books but we generally believe she would have altered her guidance based on the most recent research (there is evidence of Tracy changing her mind about when to do things based on her research and learning), so whilst the books will say to put baby in his/her own room from the off, my advice would be to follow the SIDS guides and have baby close by until 6 months.
My own, I planned to have all naps and the first part of night sleep in a travel cot (like pack and play) for the first 6 months, my baby had other ideas. It was fine until he was 10wks old when he suddenly refused to sleep there. I discovered he would settle to sleep happily in his night bed which threw me into a panic, I sat with him almost constantly for 2 hrs I was so scared to leave him...and then I dug out the monitor I'd been given as a gift, I thought I wouldn't need it.
Mine also learned to nap in the car which allowed us to go out and about whilst keeping to a routine.
I'm sure others will also have lots of advice and support for you.
If you are planning to breast feed I would suggest popping over to the BF board for some more recent advice and guidance as this is another area we feel Tracy would have changed in her books had she been able to.
I hope this helps some, and I hope you settle in here and enjoy being here as much as I do.
