Wwyd - to wake or not to wake?

[BadFam1]

I am a first time mum to a currently 9 week ds.

I hear on here a lot about dream feeds. Now if I am correct, and someone please tell me if I'm not that a dream feed is essentially waking up ds/dd before you go to bed and offer them a feed in hope of stretching out their nighttime sleep.

My ds has recently been moved to his cot as his sleep was getting worse in his moses basket and we think it was due to lack of room. Since doing this for 2 nights in a row he had the following pattern
Feed - 6.30-7
Bed between 7.30-8
Woke 12.30
4.30
7.00

After two nights of this i thought perhaps I should try giving him something at 10-11ish in hope that he would drop the 12 feed and wake at about 2.30-3 and then hopefully not again until 6.30-7

I did this last night, gave him a feed which he was pretty much asleep for at 10.30 and then he woke at 2.30. Only issue was after that he would not go back to sleep resulting in only a couple of hours sleep for me and a very grumpy baby today.

So my question for you all is, should I try again with the dream feed or just let him construct his own little nighttime routine even if that means I am getting up twice instead of once in the night?

[goodbyeyellowbrickroad]

When I gave DS dreamfeeds I wouldn't wake him up - I'd pick him up from his crib and put him to the boob and he latched on in a half asleep state. I did that at around 10pm as I went to bed and he'd then sleep until 2.30/3am.

Perhaps give it another go tonight and then if he's unsettled again call it a day.

[BadFam1]

Thanks. It's such a hard one to call when precious sleep is at stake

I will perhaps see how he is tonight and go from there. He has been moved about from moses to cot in his room to travel cot in our room (had to wait for it to arrive) so perhaps just needs some time to adjust.

Would love to have kept him in his own room, but feels a little early at 9 weeks and I don't fancy spending each night on his floor until he is a bit older

guess I'll just have to wait and see what delights he has for me tonight

[Elderberri]

I have never woken a child to feed it, I co slept and breast fed, half the time I would wake up and they were feeding lol.

[PuddingAndHotMilk]

Hi. I'm first time mum to a hungry and sleep fighting 6mo DD. I do dream feed when I come to bed. Like a pp says I don't wake her and 6 out of 7 nights she'll latch on. She'll then sleep to 3/4 or even 5 some nights. Without the dream feed she's up by 1:30. It means I get much better quality sleep and she has ALWAYS settled well after the dream feed. (I've just tempted fate, haven't I?!)

Good luck x

[isisisis]

Dream feeding never worked for us, DD would wake up at the same time with or without. That said, I work on the 3 day principle - try something for 3 days running before you decide if it's working or not. I'd give it a bit more of a try.

[BadFam1]

Thanks everyone

He kind of woke himself up for feed at 11.30 last night but then went through to 3 and then 7 with no problems.

I recon he enjoys keeping me on my toes :)

I will follow the 3 times rule and try again tonight and see if we can keep this going