EASY questions for a four month old

[toriaum]

HI!
I have an 18week old girl and I've been following the easy routine for the last two weeks ( and wished I knew about it much earlier). I have a couple of questions...

1)  My lo usually wakes at 8am, so I've been following the 4/4 feeds routine and putting her down at 8pm or 8:30pm depending on the day.  Is this alright to start the routine at 8am.  IN the BW, Tracy only refers to the routine starting at 7am.  I would prefer my lo to stay at 8 as it fits into our schedule great and it enables me to see her more in the evening after work.  Do babies have an internal clock that makes the 7 routine fit the best?  As long as my lo is sleeping 11-12 hours, is it alright to stay at 8?

2) We've been doing the 4/4 routine but we run into a snag in the evening.  the first two cycles are great: eat, activity, sleep - but the third cycle seems to be different each night and doesn't quite last 4 hours to feed.  Below is a sample of our routine.  IT seems since the sleep is just a cat nap, my lo wake up ready to eat, but there's usually an hour left before she should be eating.  SO there's 3 or 3.5 hours in between the last two feeds ( I feed her, but I'm wondering if I should be trying to hold her off longer)  Also, is it bad to skip the cat nap?  SOme days she naps from 6:30-7:30pm and than wakes, eats and goes to sleep at 8:30pm.  It seems like she could make it till 7:00-7:30 without a cat nap sometimes.
8:30am - wake and eat
9:00am - A
10:30am - sleep
12:30 - eat
1:00pm A
2:30 - sleep
4:30pm eat
5:00pm A
(THis is where it gets inconsistent)
6:30ish catnap
7:30 bath and feed
8-830pm Sleep

THanks for any help!

[RachelC]

It looks like you are doing a fantastic job!  The routine is meant to be flexible, so feeding before the 4 hours is perfectly fine.  Our routine looks like that at the end of the day as well.  As long as you are following your baby's cues, you are following the BW principles 

You definately do not need to stick to a 7 am wake up time.  Consider yourself lucky!   I think many of us would love the 8 am wake up (we're sleeping 6:30pm-6am here... would love that to even be 7:30-7  ).  You are welcome to try to drop the catnap, but I will just warn you that doing so could cause early wake ups.  If she gets overtired before bed, it will cause her to wake earlier... and if you put her to bed earlier to compensate no catnap, she will proabably wake before 8... just somthing to think about.  Most babies do not drop that catnap until about 6 months.

Keep up the great work!

[toriaum]

Okay, thanks Rachel
I'll just keep with the if it's not broke, don't fix it mindset.

THanks for the encouragement!