dream feeds - FTM!

[Marzipan23]

hello,

i'm thinking about introducing dream feeds for my baby but a bit apprehensive and wondered what other peoples experience has been. for context:

• baby is 5 months
• typically does 8 hours but will wake a few times and needs settling with dummy and a quick pat
• goes to bed between 8 and 9, wakes at 4/5, used to go at 10pm when that worked for all of us but no matter what time his nap is now he is so ready for bed at 8/9
• when he wakes at 4/5 he has a feed (breast) and is tired enough to snooze but wont go back into his next to me
• serial contact napper during the day, have started managing to get him down in the next to me for his first nap
• before bed has bath, breast feed with me and then 30 mins later a bottle of expressed milk (have done this from about 3 weeks as had issues with my milk initially due to birth and found he slept better with the extra top up so kept it.

for those that have done dream feeds:

• what routine did you follow?
• how many nights did it take for it to work?
• lights on and baby awake with nappy changed or just keep it cosy and sneak a boob in his mouth?

-any other advice??

reason for wanting to stretch night sleep is he does seem very sleepy still on a morning and i'm struggling with the lack of sleep (even though baby is asleep I pump in the night so I dont get engorged!)

advice very much appreciated!!

Why do you need to dream of feeding your baby? Unless they underweight, I wouldn't do it.

Maybe earlier nightime would help? My 6 months old sleeps by 6.30pm and wakes at 6am - no feed in between (on formula, so I know breastfeed babies might wake more often).

because he does 8 hours and then wont go back down, if he goes down at 7 he will be up at 3. I am wondering if a dream feed would improve things

I dream fed both of mine (formula), currently doing it now with DD2 (3 months). Her last awake feed is 7pm and we take her to bed after that, then 10.30/11pm I’ll change her nappy while she’s still asleep which will rouse her ever so slightly but eyes still shut, then pop the teat in her mouth, I’ll hold her for 10/15 mins after just to let it settle a little and then put her back in her crib. She’ll then sleep until 7.30/8am. I know some people aren’t fans of a dream feed but they really work for us.

thank you this is helpful - so you go for keeping it dark?
How long did you do this with your eldest and what age did you start? I know of course all babies are different!
currently lying in bed with one eye propped open and baby snoozing on boob

I remember doing a LOT of googling 😂DD1 was super straight forward as she was never too fussed on her milk, I’m hoping DD2 will be the same. I pushed her dream feed back a little earlier over a couple of weeks and eventually took it out completely - we were lucky and just timed it right as she slept through and wasn’t fussed but if we hadn’t, I’d have just continued to dream feed and try it again in another few weeks.

RE the light situation, I have a little Tommee Tippee penguin light thing and I just use the egg from that as a source of light, I don’t put the bedroom light/lamp on.

It’s so tough, you’ve just got to do what works for you. Hope you manage to get a little more sleep whatever the method 😊

congrats on your baby.

So there’s no scoentific evidence to show that how a baby feeds impacts their sleep. There’s a great website call BASIS that has loads of evidenced based information about infant sleep. lyndsey Hookway on Instagram is also a good resource about babies and sleep.

By 5 months your supply is established and will change to match baby’s needs quickly. You don’t need to express at night unless you want to (so that might help with sleep)

You could also look at safer sleep guidelines for that post 4am feed sleep. It’s perfectly natural for babies to want to sleep on or near us. Were their safe space. Contact napping and co sleeping can mean everyone gets more and better sleep.

A dream feed might not help this situation and you could end up just waking them for no reason. You could try a breastfeed when they wake for their dummy instead.

thanks everyone for your help!
we did our first dream feed last night, managed to get him to bed at half 7, took a while as he seemed to be wondering what was going on! picked him out of his cot at half 10 and latched him, he was falling asleep on the breast so gently roused him a few times, had a half decent feed, settled quickly and went back down, he's still sleeping now! so its been nearly 11 hours. first night so could have been a fluke but seems to have helped 😊