Advice dreamfeed experience please

[SnowWhite26]

About 2 weeks ago my now 11 week old started to get tired so we were putting her to bed at 7-8 witg last feed beyween 5 and 6.We then introduced a dream feed at 10-11.she is always in a very deep sleep but it worked well and she never woke up. She then stirs a few times in the night and needs dummy put bk in and then has a feed between 5.30 and 7ish when ever she wakes up. In the past few nights she has fully woken when been put down in cot after d feed and wiggled loads and taken a while to settle. She has also started wanting food earlier in the morn. I dunno whether to iliminate dreamfeed and just wait for her to wake for food naturally as i am losing loads of sleep as it takes a while to settle after and she sometimes wakes up being a bit sick. Advice plz x

The changes on your babys sleep and also in her calorific need (both night time and daytime) will change lots and are not linear.

So it might be that sleep is 'sorted' for a few weeks then suddenly a growth spurt means a night feed starts being needed again. Then it changes back and then changes again. And so on.

So your dreamfeed also need not be set in stone. It can come and go whenever you like. We have often used a dreamfeed to effect a change in sleeping habits. For example:

If bedtime feed +dreamfeed starts to = early mornings. Then for a time I would drop the DF and accept a middle of the night fee (say 1am) but in the hope that morning wake up gets later.

Then once morning wake up is stablished as later, I might then go back to the dreamfeed, since it's preferable to a night feed and hope that baby can go right through from dreamfeed to reasonable wakeup time.

I also will do a DF as and when I feel like it. So for example if I am knackered at 11pm and just want to go to sleep, then I except I'll have a night feed and not bother with the DF. Equally when I really want a chunk of uninterrupted sleep then I would make sure baby has a DF so that I can have a better nights sleep.

So in summery, DF can come an go as you want. By all means drop the DF for a week or two and see what happens. It might be then in a few weeks/months time you re-introduce it. Or just give every now and again.