Dream feed backfired- what to do?

[pia78]

So we had naturally developed a pretty good sleep routine with baby who is 9 weeks. As long as I could get her to a last feed at around 9pm, she was most often than not sleeping through till 3/4am, and had even slept right through till 6:30 once...only problem was that between 6-9pm she was very fretful, fussy etc..we'd cluster feed in the evening but sometimes she'd feed at 8 and fall asleep which was not enough to see her through to 3/4. So i changed her bedtime to 7pm, giving her a cluster feed at 5 and 6 and then waking her at 10. Very sleepy feeds but she did seem to feed (took about an hour)

We've done this for four days:
Day 1/2: woke around 3am, fed then slept till 6:45
Day 3: woke at 2:30, fed then slept till 7
Day 4: woke up shortly after falling asleep at 7:30pm, couldn't get her back to sleep until after 10pm with constant feeding, then woke up at 1:40 and 3:40?!! Barely fed at 1:40 and took one breast at 3:40.

Was day 4 just a one off? Have I messed with her natural sleep cycle? Should I stick it out with 7pm bedtime to see if she adapts or should I go back to 9pm bedtime with hellish early evening?

Sorry I know I sound like a maniac but frustrated that we were doing so well and I've put my foot in it by tinkering!

[FATEdestiny]

Up until about 3 or 4 months old, it's best just to go with the flow.

I say this because the physiology of a baby's sleep changes at around 3-4 months old, so there is little point getting stressed about sleep now when it will change anyway in a few weeks anyway.

The main thing to reach your baby at this age is that lots of sleep is good. So aim over each web period to get baby as much sleep as possible, as often as possible, resetting back to sleep if possible.

How the sleep happens at this age is much less important at this age. Just lots and lots of sleep.

"Tinkering" with sleep from one day to the next is unlikely to tell you anything. Making a change consistantly for 2 or 3 weeks would give you a better indication of the effect of that change.

[FATEdestiny]

reach = teach
web period = 24h period

[primarynoodle]

My baby is 10 weeks and had a similar sleep pattern, last couple of days she's been really fussy to get to sleep and has woken up twice in the night.. I'm just rolling with it at the moment as she's so little and the slightest thing (heat? Rubbish day naps?) can make a huge difference. I don't think you can really get them into a routine or that they have a proper natural routine for another couple of months tbh