Will he ever sleep through the night??

[Mel55]

Perhaps I'm being unrealistic....but DS has yet to sleep through the night (I'm considering 8 hours of sleep as through the night).  He's 5 1/2 months old--am I expecting this too soon??  I'm so frustrated with E.A.S.Y. as it just doesn't seem to be working.

Here is his schedule:

E-at 8:00 a.m (bottle usually 5oz)
A-plays
S-at 9:30 a.m. for around an hour.
E-at 11:00 a.m. (bottle usually 5 oz)
A-plays
S-at 12:30 p.m. for around an hour and a half to two hours
E-at 2:00 p.m. (bottle usually 5 oz)
A-plays
S-at 4:30 p.m. for 45 min or so
E- at 5:00 p.m. (bottle usually 5 oz)
A-plays, then bathtime
S- at 7:30 p.m.
E- at 8:30 p.m. (bottle usually 7 oz)
S- until up again to eat
E- usually around 1:00 a.m. (bottle usually 7 oz)
S- until up again to eat
E- usually around 5 a.m. (bottle usually 5 oz)

AAAAH.  I cannot get him on a 4 hour E.A.S.Y. as even if I try to delay his feedings by 15 minutes at a time, I have to hold him because he screams the whole time until he gets fed.  I have a toddler and it's too hard to be carrying around a 16lb baby and running after her, even for 15 minutes!!  I usually get through 2 days of delaying feedings by 15 minutes but then get frustrated and stop (my bad, I know).  He does not take change well.

I have tried giving him solids (rice cereal), he'll only eat maybe 1 tbsp and then will only drink ~3 oz of formula.  I haven't been consistent here either as DD is a handful so I haven't had an opportunitiy for my brain to be working well enough to tell me to give him cereal and by the time I remember, he's screaming for food and won't take the spoon.

I have tried PU/PD with him at night rather than feeding him, but he gets irate the minute he's put down and then will not settle until he's fed.  At that point he will drink 7-9oz of formula.

He's a grumpy/touchy baby and goes from calm to irate in about 2 minutes. 

I'm at a loss.....HELP!

[HeatherC]

Well, I believe if you can end the night feeds, he'll take more during the day and thus be able to extend his feeds.  One way I've heard of eliminating night feeds is to make them less appealing.  I searched for the post, but was unable to find it.  However, the general idea was to add water to the formula more an more each night until basically it is just a bottle of water, which he probably won't want.  The original poster said it worked within the first few nights that she didn't have to water it down too much before her dd was already turned off.  Otherwise, you'll have to commit some more time to pu/pd.  One night without a night feed won't starve him, and hopefully he'll drink more the next day.  Tracy discussed a case on pg 121, and she advised to absolutely not feed the baby during the night, but rather use pu/pd.   Hopefully, after he's feeding more at each feed, and will be able to stretch his feeds to every four hrs, you'll be able to feed more like at 8,12,4, and then say around 7:30 and back in bed by 8.