Dream Feed

[DreamingOfTheMaldives]

12 week old DS goes to bed at around 8pm and wakes fairly consistently at 1am and 5am for a feed. He is formula fed.

Before we established a bedtime routine, he had been going to bed with us at 10/11pm and would sometimes sleep for between 5 and 7.5 hours (8 once!)

Since we've established a bedtime routine and put him to bed at around 8pm ish, he hasn't managed anything more than 5 hours and now wakes twice a night.

I don't want to go back to keeping him up with me until I go to bed as with my DH working away, I am desperate for an hour or so to myself in an evening, and DS tended to be unsettled when he stayed up with me.

Anyway, I digress, I was actually wondering what people's thoughts are on trying to introduce a dream feed as I go to bed, in the hope it will mean a longer period of sleep for me before he wakes up to feed again? Am I likely to be disturbing his deep before midnight sleep meaning he will be more unsettled? Is a dream feed possible with a windy baby? He can sometimes get hiccups if not winded.

Is it something that's worth a try? If it messes up his sleep I guess it will only be that night (perhaps I'll wait until DH is home tomorrow night when he is on duty )

I did dream feeds with both Ds's and it worked great. They don't wake up just carry on sleeping. Definitely worth a try.
My two were sleeping from 7pm to 5am with a dream feed at about 10:30, at 12 weeks and 15 weeks, I think.

My DD goes to bed at 7 and I dream feed her at 10. Sometimes (most times!) though she wakes up for this feed. She occasionally slept 7 till 12 but when I feed her at 10 she usually sleeps until 1am (although now it's 12, stupid 4 month sleep regression!)

I think dream feeding her has made her expect to be fed at that time and that's why she wakes up, it probably disrupted her natural sleeping pattern.

Also can I just say, I am so jealous your little usually sleeps 5 hour chunks, mine has done that maybe 3 or 4 times

Definitely give it a go. If it doesn't work the first night, keep at it for at least another two nights to allow the change to settle in.

dd is 11 weeks old. I haven't fed her at 10/11pm since she was about 2 weeks old. I was worried about her getting used to being fed at ths time and disrupting her natural sleep pattern.

She has her last bottle at 7pm, asleep for 7.30- sleeps until between 3/4am, bottle, change and then back to sleep until 7.30/8am.

Tiredemma - if I could get just one feed between 7pm and 7.30am I'd be happy and not considering a dream feed It's the 2 wakings that I find tough, particularly as he doesn't always go back to sleep after the 5am feed (like this morning!)

Sammie - we got 7 hours sleep a couple of times, it was heaven! I want my 7 hours back!

I am dream feeding DS as I type. He is drinking so we'll see what effect it has on his sleep.

Any joy?

Ugh, 7 hours sounds like heaven! I don't think my baby will EVER sleep that long in a row

How did the dream feed go?

What is a dream feed? I'm 38 weeks pregnant and keen to know :)

Any joy?!! Hahahahaha

The little monkey had his dream feed and still fed twice during the night. He basically got an extra feed!

I gave him dream feed at about 1030pm. He took a decent amount. He then woke at 2.30am with a dirty nappy and for a feed( instead of 1am) but didn't go back to sleep until 5am. He then woke at 5.40am for his next feed. I could have cried! Thankfully he was back asleep for 615am and let me sleep until 915am.

So basically the dream feed was a complete disaster! I don't know whether it was the need for food or the dirty nappy which woke him at 2.30am so we're going to try again tonight. I say we but my DH is home after working away all week so I will be sleeping with earplugs in after a couple of glasses of wine while he deals with whatever this evening brings.

Mrs Dexter - it's basically a feed you give as you are going to bed. You pick them up and put your nipple or teat to their mouth while they are asleep and they should start to suck. You then put them back down in their crib. It's a feed without waking them in the hope of pushing back their next feed so you can get a longer period of sleep.

As you can see, it didn't exactly have the desired effect for me! Will try again tonight and if it doesn't work will leave it and try again in a couple of weeks. I don't want him to get used to a 1030pm feed and start waking for it if there is no benefit in doing so.

Thanks DreamingOfTheMaldives

Dream feeds didnt work for either of my children , as says above , my little guys still woke up for their normal night feeds on top of it ! My 15 week old us currently still up every two and a half hours and sometimes takes over an hour to go back to sleep ! It's SO draining , I thought second babies were supposed to be easier !! :)

A few of us have been attempting dreamfeed and updating over in Breast and Bottle Feeding. My LO had 3 wake ups and I was hoping to get the biggest stretch of sleep from 10 ish.

We decided to try that 10ish feed as a dream feed as he was waking at different times for that feed and we wanted to do it before we went to sleep.

Tried it, didn't really see much difference. Then I decided I would do that feed on demand again a couple of nights ago, and it never happened. Same last night. He seems to have dropped that feed on his own. So I'm going back to on demand just to see what happens now with the remaining 2 night feeds (2 ish and 5ish). He has a 5 and a half hour block of sleep now. I am wandering if that will get longer over the next few weeks.

Give it a try, for me, at the moment (LO is 9 weeks now) I don't think it was right. Maybe in a few weeks? But it seems to work for a lot of people.