Dream feeding - what's it all about

[sallycinnamonhere]

Dd at 6 weeks has got into a sort of routine. After the bf at around 7 or 8 ish she goes 5 hours before neeeding another feed. Unfortunately we can't get her to go to sleep before 10. I'd like to maximise my sleep by feeding her at 10 ish and then seeing her go 5 hours before the next feed, in theory giving me a good stretch of sleep. Is this possible? Would a dream feed work? If so - how do I go about this? Any suggestions would be most helpful.

I know lots of people who swear by dream feed, just insert bottle or boobie into mouth of asleep baby, amazing that they can eat in their sleep. However I find that it meant mine only slept for an extra hour or so, so going to bed really early works best for me, boring, but essential!

what about winding baby?

Hmm, depends on how windy baby is I guess, when mine was 6wo I was up 24 hours in a constant round of feed wind sleep puke baby awake, start again! But by about 10-12 weeks she just didn't need winding every time, still spent hours rubbing her back! Not sure tbh

The baby whisperer says ' at the end of the dream feed, your baby will be so relaxed you can put him down without burping'

We mainly ffed so don't know if this is relevant, but dream feeding didn't really work fo rus, tbh. He still woke up at the same time. 5 hrs between is very good thopugh - hopefullt a sugn that sleepless nights won't last too long?!

also, don't panic when she totally abandons this "routine" as she inevitably will as she grows.

When we gave ours dream feed I used to put them upright aginst shoulder at the end and pat them gently to wind then and they would stay asleep. Don't know if this would work with baby who is usually tricky to wind.

From the start with DD2 I would always wake her at 10pm (by changing her) and feed her, before going to bed myself. However, I think when most people talk about a "dreamfeed" they are thinking of a slightly older baby. Once DD2 was going down at 7.30-ish in the evenings (around 3 months) I would then wake her (again by changing her nappy) when I was ready to go to bed, feed her and then put her back down. This used to see her through till 5-ish, and then eventually until 7.00. It worked well for us and I carried on until she was about 8 months. However, some people find that a dreamfeed makes no difference to the time their babies next wake, or in some cases makes them more unsettled and likely to wake more.

Mmmmm, maybe I should just be grateful for only having to feed twice through the night at 6 weeks (well apart from when she has a growth spurt)

I've always done a dreamfeed. It started out that ds would cluster feed all evening from 6pm to midnight ! but gradually he started falling asleep during these long feeds until he was about 10 weeks old when he was having a feed at about 7pm and another one at about 11pm, he'd then sleep through to about 5am. He's now 9 mo and I still do his dream feed, partly to help keep my supply going as I'm back at work now. He doesn't wake up at all, maybe stirs a bit as I pick him out of his cot, but I keep the lights off in his room (he's got a little night light) and the second he's on the boob he's off to sleep again, feeding merrily away. I don't really need to burp him now, but when he was younger quite often just putting him upright was enough, at the end of the feed I would gently bring him to lie with his head on my shoulder and a little bit of wind would pop out. It's always worked a treat for me, perhaps you could try moving your evening feed a bit earlier if she's doing about 5 hours before her next feed, say feed her at about 6pm and then you can try doing a dream feed at 11pm.