Dream feeding

[saturdaymorningyawn]

Hi I just wanted some opinions/advice/shared experiences about dream feeds. DS is 4 mo FF wakes 2-3 times a night for feeds. He is demand fed but DP has suggested maybe we do a dreamfeed at 11 and see if that encourages him to go longer. All advice etc greatly received as o have no idea what to do fir the best

I don't know what advice your after but my DS has a BF dreamfeed sometime from me and sometimes from DP in a bottle. He goes to bed 7-8pm ish and I feed him at 10.30pm, he wakes 6.30-8ish but only ever woke once at 5am as a newborn without a dreamfeed so he might just be a good sleeper by himself?

I am looking after a 3mo and she is just dropping her dream feed, she feeds at 8am, 12pm, 4pm & 8pm or earlier if she asks, she drains a 6oz bottle mostly :) she stirs in the wee hours (4-6am) but settles with her pacifier and snuggle blankie and is almost always still asleep at 8am.

How often does DS feed during the day?

Thank you for your replies. Should I suppose I'm looking to see whether a) it's worth waking him up to give dreamfeed if this will Help him
Settle and sleep better/longer at night and b) if once I start is it likely that he'll always want a dreamfeed so won't naturally drop this feed?

MNP he feeds 3 hourly and will have between 4-6oz per feed. I have no strict 'routine' and I find each day he will wake/feed at different times. Not sure if imposing a stricter routine in the day i.e waking him at same time, feeding him at same times will help with his sleep/feeds at night?

I have a routine because I need one - I'm a control freak! You don't really need one of it doesn't suit you IMO. My only advice would be to try not to let him sleep more than 2.5/4 hours in the day, depending on age.

My DS doesn't wake for his dream feed and goes straight back in his cot.

HTH.

Hi Saturday why wake your DS? Why not 'dream feed' before you go to bed whilst he is asleep? I found that worked a treat with my dc when they were babies. I found that by stroking my nipple across their lips would encourage them to latch on and that they would feed whilst still asleep.

Hth

Thank you. Seven I just assumed that he would wake to feed but I'll give it a go. Should 4 hours sleep in the day would be luxury!! Unfortunately he doesn't like sleep not like his mother . I'm glad though that you say I don't need a routine I was worrying that I should start implementing one. I'll try a dreamfeed tonight and see how we get on.

We used a dreamfeed with DS (EFF) very successfully from around 6 weeks until 4 months and then we weened him off it; he now goes 12 hours in the night. I have to say, it worked a treat - it decreased his night wakings from 3 to 1 just because it made the times much more sensible. I also wanted to add that similar to shouldibecrossaboutthis we found that DS actually would go back to sleep with a cuddle and dummy and didn't really need his night feed. Also, when he dropped his night feeds he upped the amount he ate in the day, so you could try encouraging him to take more during the day IYSWIM.

Here are some dreamfeed tips:

• It can cause wind problems, so if he won't burp asleep, use some gripe water.
• It might be tough to keep him asleep at 4 months (why we dropped it) but if you use gro bags keep him in it to feed.
• If he doesn't drink, wiggle him a bit to get him into lighter sleep
• Wind wind wind
• To wean him off it, bring it earlier every couple of days until it combines with his day feeds.

Thanks Purple for all your helpful advice. We tried it tonight gave a feed at 11. He woke as I took him out the cot but by half way through his feed was asleep again and finished his bottle asleep. He winded eventually and I was able yo pit him down after 5 minutes. He then slept through til 3 had a feed but has now been awake wanting to play since then . But if it's just one wake up at night I can live with it for now until he gets used to the routine.

Thank you again all for your helpful advice I'll let you know how we get on over next couple of weeks.

Hey Saturday, glad the DF went well, he might only need it for a few weeks too, but obviously depends on your baby. BTW when you say he woke up at 3am, what actually happened?

My DS sometimes used to cry out at 5am and I always use to feed him, he then started to refuse the feed so I tried a dummy, after 5 days he then refused the dummy. Then I started to rock him. He slept in with us in a co-sleeper cot and I was worried he would wake DP so I was doing everything I could to keep him quiet.

After 3 days of rocking and him nodding off and waking up 40 mins later I realised what was actually happening was he was just crying out in his sleep at 5am and my feed/dummy/rock activity was disrupting him and waking him up more! Whoops.

He still does cry out in his sleep around 5am (I think this is when their sleep is at it's lightest?), I bought a black out blind and now I leave him for 5 minutes and 99% of the time he goes back to sleep. The other 1% he needs a feed, usually just during growth spurt times. I should add he doesn't cry, it's more of a chattering.

Hi should he's done it again tonight he wakes up crying. I've given him a bottle which he's finished but both nights he's been soaked through. I even changed him at 11 tonight to see if his nappy would last longer think I've lost the ability to put a nappy on securly!! I pick him up and rock him because like you I don't want DP disturbed. He'll go back to sleep for about 10 mins then wake again cooing, babbling and blowing raspberries! No idea what else to do but might try and do the whole ignoring him for a little while and see if he sends himself back off to sleep. He's making me laugh though which at least makes this time of the night a little less painful

Ha ha those noises sound familiar! It might be that the new routine will take him a while to get used to though. Whenever I try something new with DS, he does other things that I could never have expected!

My DD has been sleeping all night since she was 4 weeks old. We basically feed on demand during the day (normally every 3 hours, but she will sometimes go 4 hours between feeds).

In the evenings, we play, bath, feed and then she has a sleep. In the beginning this was just a sleep in the lounge (in her moses basket) with us, and she was quite often awake when we went to bed at 12 - basically her last feed was 11pm. She would then go through til about 5am ish.

From about 7 weeks old, we started to introduce more 'formal' sleeping in the evening and we woke her for her 11pm feed. She is awake, we change her nappy too (and her outfit if she has been a little sick!) but she settles back down again quickly. Then after 20 mins of being upright, we swaddle her and put her to bed.

We moved her out of our room into her own room at 9 weeks and her sleeping is just getting better and better. I think it's possible we might even have been disturbing her in the night! She now sleeps through 11.30pm til about 8am.

I don't stress if she doesn't go down at 8pm/9pm. Sometimes she will. Sometimes she won't. Either way, she gets fed at 11pm. I do give her a little extra (7oz compared to usual 5/6oz).

For us, I"m sure our success is due to the following:

Baby is swaddled.
We play the same white noise in her room every night (crashing waves!)

Basically, we follow Harvey Karp's Happiest baby routines. They work. Well, they work for our DD.

I'd be out of my mind if she was 4 months and not sleeping through!! I need my sleep!!! We may just be lucky, but I don't think it's luck. I think it's routine and Harvey Karp . With the routine, I don't stress if she does wake early one morning (she has the odd 5am slip up!) but I try to rejig the feeds during the day so that the END of day ends at the same times..if that makes sense.

Where is your daughter sleeping? Do you swaddle? Is she in your room or her own? Do you bath every night? I don't think they are too young to get a routine in place. At the moment, she has a routine - one that keeps you awake every night, you need to break it :(

Sorry, I meant your son!! Ignore my baby brain!!!!

oh. and which nappies are you using?! Try Pampers Extra Dry. Never had a leaking issue. Huggies on the other hand...

Thank you Having for your tips. I'll download that book on my kindle and see if it work's for us too (fingers crossed!) we bath him at 6.45-7 pm he has a bottle and is in his own room. We've been feeding him at 11 the past few nights. I've not yet managed to not wake him as he seems to wake as soon as I pick him out the cot. But he feeds and I put him down within about 25 minutes. He now sleeps until 3 or 4 and then wakes for another feed. Fingers crossed we've not had a play time at 4am for the last couple of nights. He then sleeps until 6.30 so fingers crossed we've started to crack it!!

You can see a video on You Tube as well which explains the methods :D

I wouldn't worry about waking him for the dream feed, I definitely wake our DD as I change her nappy first then too! (it's always full, so I'm pretty sure she would leak in the night if I didn't change it then)

Sounds like you're making progress though so fab Hope you get on with the book!

Dr Harvey Karp is truly awesome. Through some fortuitous stroke of amazing fortune, I followed a link to his earlier book "Baby Bliss" on Amazon which was going for a ridiculously cheap price. I figured I had nothing to lose and bought it. Best £2 I spent in preparation for my PFB. I totally believe that swaddling is my (and DS's) saviour. We had a wobble at about week 3 and Harvey Karp's ideas were absolutely brilliant. We don't follow any routines as Baby Bliss just teaches you how to shut down the situation quickly using the 5Ss. Swaddling is my number one favourite but it's good to have the others in my arsenal if I miss DS's tiredness cues. I'll definitely be getting his toddler book.

Oh yeah, I'm totally in agreement with havingastress about the Pampers Extra Dry too.

Just ordered Harvey Karp's book from Amazon. I'm sad to say I'm really excited about it arriving!!

Hope it helps you out.