question about dream feeds

[Clydesdaleclopper]

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me about dream feeding - I'm not really sure what it involves.

Until recently DS took a bottle of EBM at bedtime from DH and slept from 9pm until about 3.30 am. After DH went away for a week for work DS is now waking at anything from midnight to 1.30 am and 2 hourly thereafter. He has stopped taking much EBM from the bottle.

I was wondering if a dream feed might help?

I dream fed my DS before I went to bed for quite a while from around 4 or 5 months old.
He had a bottle around 7 pm and then a dream feed around 11 pm. He was a hugnry baby and even this didn't manage to get him past 4am but it was worth it.
My health vis told me I may have problems with his sleeping when I dropped the dream feed but he is 2 and half now and still fine.
I dream fed him for a good few months with no problems or regrets. I got the idea from my sister who swears by Gina Ford so may be worth getting one of her books.

Dream feed involves getting your baby out of bed and feeding them without really waking them up, then placing them back in bed still more or less asleep. Tis quite tricky for a lot of people as if baby is not properly awake they are not interested in feeding.

I have 4 month old DTs and my DD has a feed at 10pm (from DH) but he wakes her up, brings her downstairs, changes her nappy and then feeds her, otherwise she wont drink (DS2 is bigger and dropped this feed a few weeks ago). DD then usually gets to about 4am and needs feeding again (DS2 usually gets to 6am or thereabouts).

I know a lot of people who have not done the dream feed from early on find that when they introduce it their baby still wakes at the time they were waking anyway, so you could end up feeding your DS at 10 or 11 and he will still wake at midnight or 1am. How old is he?

With our dream feeds we did not take the child out of the cot, literally left them asleep to feed. Otherwise you run the risk of not settling them and then its not really a dream feed if you take them out of their slumber.

Gosh how do you feed a child that's still in the cot? Cannot imagine even bottle feeding that successfully, let alone trying to breast feed! You would have to sit them up even to bottle feed them.

I did a dream feed with my dd for ages (it became one of my favourite feeds of the day!). Before I went to bed (around 11ish) I would pick her up whilst she was still asleep and either BF or give her a bottle. She always took a full feed and it ended up seeing her through til about 6ish. Eventually it sort of stopped of it's own accord.

He's 8 months old so I guess it might be hard to start now. I certainly wouldn't be able to feed him without moving him as he starts the night in an Amby Nature Nest - don't think I know anyone whose norks would be big enough for that Once he wakes up we co-sleep but my back is getting a bit knackered from not being able to sleep straight so I could do with a couple of hours of sleep on my own.