How can I get my 14 week old ds2 to drink more at dream feed!?!

[shoneshine]

My son is almost 14weeks.He is breastfed apart from the 'dream feed' I give him before I go to bed at 10-10.30ish. Even if he hasnt had a feed since 6pm he wont take more than 3oz of formula3 and a half on the odd occasion, max!
I wouldnt mind if he slept till 3am but he sometimes wakes as soon as 1.30am for more booby and then a few hours later! Maybe I should just yawn and bear it but with a 3year old and 2yearold also Im desperate for sleep! Hes about 14lb now so should I be expecting any beta? Could let him cry but dont wana wake the whole house. At same time dont want him to keep up this habit! Any tips?? Thnks!

[girliefriend]

hello is there a reason you give him a bottle at this time rather than the boob? It sounds to me he just isn't very keen on the bottle, if I were you I would give him the chance to breast feed and then top him up with the bottle. Also is he totally woken up? because if he is sleepy that is probably effecting how much he will drink. I found going in and turning the lights on and really waking my dd up made a difference in how much she would take boob or bottle. Does he take a dummy as I would probably use one for the 1.30 wake up and encourage him to go a bit longer! Good luck xXx

[girliefriend]

Also just thought is he swaddled? because I found that when my dd was tightly swaddled she would sleep much longer and more peacefully! XxX

[SoupDragon]

How would you feel if someone tried to force you to drink something when you wanted to be properly asleep? Perhaps it is all he wants.

[SoupDragon]

I never woke nay of mine at night. They could sleep as long as they liked and slowly their period of sleep extended naturally. I honestly think this dream feed lark is more trouble than it's worth.

[eviz]

Dream feed worked brilliantly for us, and is working great second time around too (DD2 is 3 months)

Lights on, nappy change half way through, clothes off if all else fails!

Assuming he's feeding well during the day, he's probably waking at 1am out of habit rather than hunger to me.

Good luck xx

[TheGabster]

Dream feed worked great for us too, although have heard horror stories from others so think it is down to the baby.

For us, we found DS naturally came into light sleep/made noises around 10.30 so we got ready for bed and then waited for this and then went in to feed him. Was a sleepy feeder so like others have said, put the lights on and changed his nappy first, so he was really up for it.

He either used to fall back to sleep on the bottle or sometimes we would put him back in crib, eyes wide open and think "oh dear" but go back 10m later and he was soundo! Only ever once had a problem getting him back down.

[NellyTheElephant]

I don't have a great deal of advice I'm afraid. I too found the dream feed a bit of a disaster. There was absolutely no way I could make either of my DDs bf at that time (would not take the breast if still half asleep, but if I tried the route of properly waking them (lights on, nappy change etc) they would scream blue murder and be hell to settle again. They would take a bit of EBM from a bottle while still half asleep, but like your DS not much, and wake again at 2am.

Have you tried skipping it and seeing what happens? Both my girls followed a similar pattern. When I admitted defeat over the dream feed I found that they in fact only woke maybe half an hour earlier (say 1.30am rather then 2am). This pattern was way better for me as without the 10.30 feed I could go to bed earlier. I also found that once I left them alone to sleep in their own way they soon started sleepig for longer periods - the 1.30 became 2.30 became 4 became sleeping through..... Sorry, not much of an answer to your original question, but maybe try a couple of nights without that feed and see how you go - you could always add it back in if you have a disaster.

[shoneshine]

Thankyou all of you!!! I started the formula as dream feed following the advice of a certain book which I wont mention in case I get sued! You an guess who it is written by......She claims bf mums can get a low milk supply in t evening so I thought a bottle may help at nite. If I dont give the dream feed he wakes not much earlier so I may try scrapping it and if he wakes use bottle as suggested but for top up. Sometimes I think I should forget about getting sleep and just enjoy the kids. Pity we need sleep to function!
He is swaddled but Im also trying to encourage him to find thumb to self sooth and ditch the dummy so Ive started unswaddling one arm!

[SoupDragon]

But feeding at night increases your supply more than feeding in the day. Something to do with, er, prolactin (?) levels being higher at night.