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to dreamfeed or not?

6 replies

blossombath · 10/07/2012 09:45

My LO is 4months and I think he's been going through a mild regression - used to go down about 8 after a bottle of ebm and sleep til 3/4, then wake once more before getting up for day about 7/8 am. Always fed on waking, and ebf on demand through day, no nap routine or anything like that.

Then he got difficult to settle in the day - dropping almost all naps on some days - and would wake up much more in night, with less time before his first waking (often around midnight). I tried going to bed earlier so I could get some good sleep before his midnight waking, but often just lie awake so I thought about trying a dreamfeed. WE've done this two nights now at about half ten and he has been a bit better - waking just twice each night but TBH he was starting to get better anyway, and he doesn't go that much longer with the dream feed. (3.01 the first night, 2.30 the second).

I'm a bit uncomfortable with waking him for hte feed at 10.30 as my general approach so far has been to let him get on with things and he'll learn to sleep/settle when he is old enough to do so. But I was getting exhausted with the wakings, and it is nice for DH to feed him at the dreamfeed. So maybe I should persevere with dreamfeed and hope he extends the sleep? OR am I just creating another feed I'll need to drop in a few months? SHould I just stick to my 'no routine' guns and ride it out?

Sorry I know that the decision is really mine and DH's since none of you know our wee lad, but would appreciate any thoughts or experiences of dreamfeeds and dropping them!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Shmumty · 10/07/2012 09:59

at 4 months they are always going to need at least one extra feed between the 7am and the 7pm feeds. I used to make a little bit of noise/light around 1030pm (or whenever we'd go to bed) so LO would wake, do nappy change and a feed in the dark, then back to bed. Would usually wake up straightaway when I came into the room. As LO got older, it became more difficult to wake them so when they were deep asleep I'd leave them and this is when they started sleeping through from 7pm. HTH.

GnocchiNineDoors · 10/07/2012 10:01

Google "four month sleep regression".

It's a bitch.

blossombath · 10/07/2012 10:12

thanks both - don't mind doing one or two extra feeds in the night cos he is still small, and know I have regressions aplenty to get through, just wondering if dreamfeeding is worth it. Or is it just doing something for my benefit when it has no real benefit to him (since he'd wake up and get his food in an hour or two anyway), and therefore a bit cruel?
Like the idea of trying to wake him naturally shmumty, maybe that will help give us an idea of whether he is close to hunger anyway.

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blossombath · 10/07/2012 18:34

a little bumpy to see if anyone else has any thoughts on the philosophy of dreamfeeds, as it were. Have been quite anti-routine or anything that forces LO into patterns which aren't natural for him or he isn't ready for. So should I avoid dreamfeed as part of the whole routine malarky? Or wait til I'm very desperate to try it?

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HearMyRoar · 12/07/2012 13:04

I tried a dreamfeed last night for the first time and it was a bit of a disaster to be honest. the 10:30 feed was fine but she still woke through the night as before. The only differance was that she was really hard to settle again and was instead full of energy. Not something i will be repeating.

On the other hand I know lots of people who swear by them so, as usual, it really depends on your baby. Give it a go and see how you find it if you want.

roz1982 · 12/07/2012 13:06

hi Blossom I have been dream feeding my DS since he was about 3 months old and I swear by it. I have never made an effort to actually wake him up, he mostly just takes the bottle in his sleep. It meant that from about 4/5 months he had dream feed at 10.30/11 then one more night feed around three and then breakfast and from about 5/6 months (he is 7.5 months) he was just having dream feed and then no more feeds til break. the challenge now is weaning him off his dream feed!

we did need to make an effort to wean him off the 3am feed though as me and DH were just getting increasingly more exhausted! I would say stick out the dream feed and hopefully he will eventually start going 10.30 til breakfast with no feed. Hope this helps, It worked for us. x

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