Dreamfeed question

[pinkhyena]

Hi ladies wonder if you can help me?
For the last couple of nights we've been trying to give lo (10 weeks old) a dreamfeed at about 11pm but he wakes up as soon as we put him back in his cot and doesn't go back off for a couple of hours! We've been getting him to self settle for the last couple of weeks and he's doing brilliantly except at this one time. Is there a way of making sure he doesn't wake up too much short of bopping him on the head lol! Should we cuddle him to sleep in this instance or put him back in his cot and do what we've been doing? Poor dh didn't get to bed til 1:30 last night (he does the first night shift bless him).

For some babies the dreamfeed just doesn't work, it disrupts them more than anything else.

You could try changing the time, but if it doesn't work then don't bother

10 weeks old is quite young for a dreamfeed to work imo. We tried it when DS was around 12 weeks, and it was a disaster. Tried it again around 16 weeks, and still it didn't really work. Tried it again around 20 weeks, as I was back at work and going mental with lack of night-time sleep - it worked perfectly after a couple of nights of him getting used to it... I'd already started a bit of weaning by then, which I think helped too.

dreamfeed works perfectly for my baby. She has always been woken (since birth) at about 10.30 or 11 and fed, and usually goes straight back to sleep, waking once more for another feed before about 7.30am.
Recently I have been expressing milk and giving her that in a bottle without getting her out of the cot. She drinks a bottle without even opening her eyes. You could try that as a way of not waking your baby up so much for the dreamfeed.

All babies are different - dreamfeed worked perfectly for DD1, I'd slip her one at 10 pm and by 10 weeks she'd sleep till about 8.

Fast forward to DD2, tow years later, and it made no blinking difference whatsoever - she wanted feeding at 11.30 and 2.30 until she was about a year and started faffing about (unlatching at letdown and falling asleep, at which point we did pick up/put down).

They both zonked out after a BF during the day - go figure.

They're now nearly 8 and 10, sleep really well and are ridiculously healthy. If your DC doesn't 'do' dreamfeeds, don't bother.

Are you dreamfeeding with a bottle?

I've never taken mine out of the cot for a dreamfeed, just given them the bottle in the cot as they sleep.

My DD wouldn't dream feed a couple of months ago. She just wouldn't open her mouth when asleep. She now will dreamfeed, though sometimes does wake up. I think it all depends on the baby and can change as the baby grows up. What happens if you don't feed at this time, does your DS wake up in the middle of the night? Some (lucky) people don't seem to need to put a feed in at that time at all.

I did a dream-feed (or rather my husband did with an expressed milk bottle) for my DS at 10:30ish and, at about 12 weeks (my son was 6 weeks premature btw so he was only 12lbs at this point) he stopped waking in the night for any feeds. Previously, he had pretty much always woke twice even with the dream-feed. We were then happy to carry it on (he was only 3 months after all) but would loved to have dropped it before we did which was when we weaned at 6 months. We were too frightened - as many people are! DS was always out of his cot, nappy changed (very quickly) and fed and feel back to sleep really easily though.....so not a traditional dream-feed i.e. in the cot lying down!

However, my DD (9 weeks now) is another kettle of fish.....she was having the same and, as per DS, waking twice in the night too....but she's started to refuse the bottle so I stopped the dream-feed. Now I just let her wake and she is still only waking twice in the night (i.e. between 7 and 7) I am considering re-introducing it so she might go longer after it and not wake before 7am but haven't yet. Would love a BF 7-7 baby but bit tricky maybe? Any advice?!

So, in summary (sorry for hijack!), they are all different aren't they? OP - how much does your baby wake after the dream-feed?