Does anyone else wake their baby for 10-11pm feed? Does it help?

[jellybelly75]

My DD2 is nearly 6 months and still has at least 2 (sometimes 3) feeds between 7pm and 7am, and I know I shouldnt compare as all babies are different but my DD1 and DS1 both slept through by 3-4 months and I was kinda hoping DD2 would be doing the same (wishful thinking!).

I can't decide whether waking her for a feed before I go to bed (10.30-11ish) is actully making things worse, ie am I disturbing her natural sleep pattern and then causing her to wake up more in the night? I tried dreamfeeding for the first time the other night and she took a huge feed at 11pm while still asleep so I was really optimistic for a good night, but she woke up at 2.30am (as usual), not all that hungry but with a heavy nappy (as we usually change her at the 11pm feed when shes awake but didnt want to disturb her after dreamfeed). And then she woke again at 5.40am :(.

Do other bf mums wake their lo's for the late evening feed or do you let them wake when they're ready?

Has anyone had success with dreamfeeding in order to get a decent stretch of sleep?

Thanks (and apologies for the long waffly message)

Tried it with DS and it made him more unsettled. He's far happier waking of his own accord when he's hungry - usually goes fom 7 till between midnight and 1am. People kept telling me how brilliant dream feeding is, but i guess it works for some and not others. My DC is clearly a stubborn little monkey who will not be forced into routine!

I do wake mine for late evening feed. I do a nappy change and when my DH gets involved a bit of song and dance and tour of the flat too(!) I'm happy with the results, which are that she sleeps until early morning. (Before the Great Sleep Regression she slept until the actual morning, but that was a long time ago) So it just suits us/her. But I don't know if that helps you!

I do, I express in the day and leave a bottle of EBM for DH to give at 11. (Incidentally, it used to be formula before I got the hang of expressing and that made no difference to sleep, he didn't go any longer).

We try to dreamfeed but he always wakes up, but we don't change nappy so he goes back to sleep very easily.

Anyway, with 11pm he wakes - 7.30pm, 11pm, 4am, 7am

without (whenever DH is away or out I don't bother with teh bottle but just feed on demand) he wakes - 7.30pm, 11pm, 2.30am, 6am ish or sometimes 5.30am.

I guess the bottle gets more milk into him? Or I wake him up more? Who knows. It works for us, anyway.

Thanks for your replies :)

bigkidsandme - I think you are right that the bottle probably does get more into them, I would love to give a bottle but my little monkey no longer takes one (but thats another problem I have to battle with!). Everyone always says that your milk supply isnt very good late in the evening so I dont really know how much she is taking at the 11pm feed. I am working on getting her to take milk from a beaker at the moment so maybe that will help if she will take that at the late feed.

I have started on two solid meals a day from today (only been giving tea for the last 2 weeks) so fingers crossed that may have filled her up a bit more and she'll be less reliant on the night time feeds.

Just to reinforce what others have already said that all babies are different - we tried doing a feed (BF) at 11pm for DS and initally it seemed to work. However, at around 3 months old it seemed to make him wake more often through the night so we dropped it. He is now nearly 6 months and goes to bed 6.45ish and usually sleeps through until a feed around 4.30am and then wakes around 6am.

He was so sound asleep at 11pm it felt mean waking him and definitely seemed to upset his natural sleep pattern. He was never able to do these so called dreamfeeds either. If asleep he just doesn't latch on or suck!

Good luck with the weaning. We are at the same stage as you and it is all very exciting. I have got to say that I cannot wait to be able to cut down on the day time BF so that DS can be more independent of me and go off with DP or my parents sometimes and give me a break