Hi Beartime
I have been studying (oo get me!) the baby whisperer, but I'm not following it particularly religiously. It may be a bit different for me as I only got the book when Nat was 3 wks so haven't been able to set up a routine from the beginning. What we did do from the beginning though is write down all the feeding times like she does in her chart, and from that we got quite a clear picture of how much and how often she's feeding.
She seems to have settled herself into a 3-4 hour routine, in some ways aided by us. I find it useful to note feeding times because then when she cries we've got more of an idea why (ie: if she only fed an hour ago we know it can't be hunger/dirty nappy etc..).
I don't make her stay awake for a set time after feeding like the BW does - if she wants to sleep I let her sleep. However, I don't let her sleep past 4 hours after the last feed, but by then she's usually hungry anyway. I also make her wait if she starts fussing and showing the hunger signs before 3 hours, she can usually be pacified for up to an hour when she starts. As your babe is only a week old, he's only just sorting out this sleeping/feeding lark, and I think they're more sleepy for a week after birth anyway.
As for reading the signs - that will only come with practice, I'm beginning to be able to notice them now. The only thing we need to work on is getting her to sleep on her own in the day, she's quite used to sleeping in my arms, so i'm using the BW technique of pick up, comfort, put back down, for as long as it takes for her to go to sleep. This worked quite well for getting her to sleep in her basket at night.
At the end of the day, he's only this small for a very short time, so please enjoy your baby, spoil him if you want, it will all work itself out later. Don't be too hung up on a strict routine this early, sometimes that can cause more stress. Also, trust your instinct, mummy's do know best!!!
Sorry, this has turned out a bit long, hope it's offered some kind of help? Personally, I'm not expecting Nat to sleep through the night yet as she's only 4wks old, and I think it helps to resign yourself to that fact, otherwise you end up resenting them when they don't. She goes down from 10 - 12.30(ish) feeds goes down, feeds again at 5(ish) goes down, then is up at about 8.30(ish).
One last thing - honest - babies cry, they need to cry, they will cry, please don't think that because you've 'missed his cues' you've upset your baby. I'm sure it meant a lot more to your parents to be able to cuddle him, then if you'd whipped him away for sleep time. Nat quite often has what we call 'scream time', but we know it won't harm her, or last more than an hour.