Remember Orbit is one of the oldest, he's nearly nine weeks, so he's going to be a bit more of an awake baby than the littlies....but I know what you mean about how to keep a baby awake, Schulte, it's pretty hard!
I can't keep him awake for long once he starts getting tired, but you can push it and stretch it a little bit, so for example when they start yawning and fussing and looking tired, you can take them off to do their nappy, which wakes them up a bit. That will stretch their awake time by ten minutes or so, and then gradually they'll start staying awake longer all by themselves.
Gingersarah - if V has reflux then she needs to eat little and often, which is where the Eat - Activity - Eat - Sleep schedule we're trying to do is meant to help, rather than the Eat - Activity - Sleep one that is the basic one in the book. However, if she has colic then she needs to not feed too frequently, as that will make it worse - you probably know which one is more likely to be the case. You could try stretching the time between feeds and seeing if her windiness gets worse or better?
Feeding makes Orbit dopy too, but as he got a bit older he started only being dopy for about ten minutes after a feed, so I'll feed him and burp him and give him a cuddle while he's dopy, and then plonk him in his bouncy chair or on his playmat and he wakes up and has his activity time. But it is very recent for him to do that or to take any interest in his play mat etc
I know what you mean about getting DP on board, too - my DP was quite glad I took charge and told him when DS1 needed to sleep or eat, especially when he saw how well DS1 slept once we got the routine going, but I was a bit like a schoolmistress at the beginning! That man has infinite patience....
I think the thing to actually DO, iyswim, is spend a couple of days observing V, so seeing when she feeds, how long she sleeps, what she starts doing when she's tired - does she yawn, or start crying, or wriggle her head around (that's Orbit's tired trick). Then you can work out what you need to adjust to make it work better for you - whether you need her to stay awake a bit longer, or not sleep directly after a feed, etc. It does all sort of start falling into place but I think the main thing the Baby Whisperer teaches is to really watch your baby and see what they're telling you and learn to read their signals.
Oh almost forgot our other achievement - Orbit slept from 10pm to 5am last night! Woo hoo!