My baby isn't broken

I really must remember that, though sometimes it is really hard to. During this sleep regression, little Pi seems to go from bad to worse. Up every two hours, then awake every hour from 3am. Sometimes he never actually settles after 11am, unless he is in my arms. His day naps have gone from 40mins, to 30 mins average, but often 20mins. Yesterday he only did 11 mins in one and today his first nap lasted for 6 freakin' minutes (believe me, I tried for 25mins to get him to go back down). This means not only am I not sleeping at night, but the day is one long 'try and either put the baby to sleep, or keep him from crying' saga. Anyone with the advice 'sleep when the baby sleeps' obviously has not met a catnapper...

Because of this, I have been reading "Save our Sleep" by Tizzie Hall. In a nutshell, this book is very routine based. Here is a sample of a routine based on a baby aged 10 weeks until you introduce solids:

Feed times:
7am
11am
3pm
6:30pm

Sleep times:
9am
1pm

Nap times:
4:30pm

Bedtime:
7pm

Waking the baby up at 7am sharp, and dream feeding at 10:30pm.
I have a few problems with starting this routine. Pi is fed on demand, and at the moment he likes it every 2hours or so (sometimes less, sometimes more). This routines also runs off the fact that baby will sleep for 2hours straight, so if I did this today, between 7am and 1pm, Pi would have had 6mins sleep in 6 hours. If baby is under 8 weeks, she also wants to keep these 4 hour feeding routines and express before a feed. Tizzy says that you can still go out but as it takes me an hour round trip to get anywhere, I would either have to be away for 40 mins, or 3 hrs and 40mins, so it's not entirely practical for having a life. The book also uses a bit of 'crying it out' in order to teach the baby to self settle. She says it is only protest cries that you ignore and you can go in for emotional cries, however Pi really only has emotional cries- tears and all- I think it is left over from the colic days..

I realise I am a bit of a softie and following this routine half arsed won't work. That if I could do 5 days of it, then possibly Pi's sleep problems would be solved. That he just needs to have a few days of zero naps for his to realise he needs to nap properly, or not at all. I understand the logic, but it is not a guarantee and I am worried about the effect this will have long term.

The wealth of information out there and on the internet has many babies falling into a one size fits all category. I might not have a magical unicorn baby (that sleeps all the time, takes a dummy and never cries one bit), but my baby isn't broken either. I read that babies often get better on their own, usually at around the 6 month mark. Now is not a good times to train him anyway, as this 'wonder week' means he isn't sleeping like he was.

While I am stressing over putting Pi into a routine, as long as he is happy and healthy, isn't that what really counts. I know I can handle a few more weeks of little sleep, and I know I will handle it much better if I stop worrying about what Pi isn't doing (sleeping), and focus more on what he is doing (being amazing!).

Hats off to all those parents functioning on little sleep. This too, shall pass.