4 month old: very short naps, snacking, night waking

[N_Mom_S]

After a terrible day and a half, today it got a bit better. I'm thinking it may have been the one bottle of formula we decided to give him that day. Last night was still pretty bad, he woke up crying almost every hour again. And he woke up happy at around 5am; I've noticed the same thing other times when he had pretty good naps during the day. He wasn't hungry or in pain but shhh pat didn't work so I had to feed him to sleep.
Today's shh pat times were 13m, 5m, 25m, the last one is still very difficult, he screams until he's too tired to continue. I'm wondering if he may be OT, I'm going to try 1h30 A time before that nap (before the other two naps his 2h A time is fine). And I've been trying to set an earlier bedtime but so far it hasn't worked, we'll see if it works tonight.
What do you think about taking that last catnap in the stroller? Would that help or quite the opposite?

[lauradj]

I often did the CN in a baby carrier or stroller.  As they get older they start to fight it, even though they usually still need it so do whatever it takes to make it happen. 
Honestly, I think 2hrs is working but you have to remember that he's going to fight any change because he doesn't understand exactly what's going on.  I'm really glad you were able to get him down to 3 naps.  If you can be consistent and stick with the 2hrs of A time, and thus the 3 naps, I think you'll see an improvement within a week. 

[N_Mom_S]

I often did the CN in a baby carrier or stroller.  As they get older they start to fight it, even though they usually still need it so do whatever it takes to make it happen. 
Honestly, I think 2hrs is working but you have to remember that he's going to fight any change because he doesn't understand exactly what's going on.  I'm really glad you were able to get him down to 3 naps.  If you can be consistent and stick with the 2hrs of A time, and thus the 3 naps, I think you'll see an improvement within a week. 

Thank you so much for all your help!!! It's a blessing that you experienced mothers take time to help first timers like me!
Last night he was down by 8:15 and it was much better: DF at 11:00, E at 1:50, the happy waking happened an hour earlier, as the bedtime (4:15, 8h after bedtime again) and I had to feed him even if he wasn't hungry, he was super awake. I put him down in the crib and he almost self-soothed! He was quiet for a while, then he cried and within 30 seconds of shhh pat he was out That's huge for us!!! And this morning I woke him up at 9:00, he was almost awake.
So I'll try to keep up with yesterday's schedule and watch closely his cues before the CN, to see if 1h30 is needed. He's usually crankier in the evenings so that may be why 2h is too much, we'll see.
Now I'm moving to the night wakings forum to see that happy waking sorted out! haha

[lauradj]

That's great!!  I'm so glad you're seeing an improvement.  It's hard when they're young because their A times change so quickly but it really does make an enormous difference with minimal intervention from Mom and Dad!