Can't wake or dreamfeed at 10pm..

[mumotrumpet]

My 8 week old won't wake up or dreamfeed more than 2oz at 10pm. I am trying to breastfeed or DH give a bottle of breastmilk at 10pm as she is waking up in the night somewhere between 3-5am. I feed her at 7pm a full feed. Any suggestions as I am hoping if she takes more at 10pm she'll sleep through.

I tried this with my DS1, thinking exactly the same as you, but he still woke up at 4am on the dot expecting a feed. Gave up after a week of trying, he dropped the 4am feed by himself at around 9 weeks.

Hope someone else around who has some more useful advice for you!

I had a similar problem. My DD either woke up totally and took some milk or hardly woke at all and took a negligible amount. I decided that I would rather have an evening that didn't end with gingerly lifting a baby out of a cot trying not to wake too much whilst simultaneously giving her a feed.

She is the same now, if I try to feed her half an hour early she isn't having it but half an hour later she is ravenous. I have always been able to set my watch by her appetite and she never takes more than she wants even of foods she really likes so maybe some babies are just like this.

I find it great that I can take my lead from her - I never have to worry if she is still hungry as she will let me know!

so, Its not working at the moment BUT you can try again in a week or two. and if it doesn't work then try again a week or two later.

Even if a dream feed works for a while they don't always go one working... as your LO has growth spurts or changes her pattern of feeding those middle of the night waking may come back if she needs more milk.

I did find myself rather about friends with boys the same age as mine who claimed that as their baby had slept through once they had stopped all night feeds " as he doesn't need them, if he can do it once he can do it every night" At this point I was doing between 1 & 3 night feeds depending on what week it was, the boys were around 12 weeks old.

UniS - agree entirely with growth spurt comments.

DS1 dropped last night feed at 9 weeks and never woke again in the night for a bottle.

DS2 managed to sleep through at 10 weeks, but until he was about 6 months old we still had occasional night feeds. Usually 3-4 nights on the row and normally associated with a growth spurt or illness.

"JoeJoe1977" - when you say DS1 dropped last night feed at 9 weeks, were you doing a 10pm feed still?

both of mine were (obviously) waking in the night at about 8 weeks, but it was nearly impossible to get them to dream feed. So I dropped the dream feed on the day of their first jabs as i wanted them to sleep + relax and they both woke up at normal time for a feed in the middle of the night. With a bit of luck your dd will just be happy to sleep from 7pm to 3am, then gradually extend it and sleep all the way through, feeding from 3-5am isn't that far from sleeping all night anyway . My ds slept through at 12 weeks and dd at 22 weeks. We had a routine going but I decided not to bother with the dream feeds once it became obvious they weren't interested.

No, we gave up with the dream feeding as he was still waking at 4am. He was taking alot of milk in the day time though, he would have 5 x 9oz bottles and drain every single one of them!

Meglet - you are right, it isnt far from sleeping though!
She is noisy the rest of the night but I avoid feeding her until i have to.

The thing is you have to get an early night if the dream feed is dropped, then you can hopefully get a good 6 hour stretch of sleep. So you can't MN all evening .

I just get worried that if i drop the 10 pm feed, no matter how small it is, she'll start waking at 1/2am. but i guess i'll never know if i dont give it a try.. Think I will try the 10 pm feed for another week or so, as suggested above, to see how it goes.

When I say I will carry on with the feed at 10pm, i mean my DH with the bottle! Think if it was just me doing the 10om feed I would have dropped it days ago like Meglet suggests!