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Sleep

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Original poster

Should I wake for last feed at midnight? 14 wks

17 replies

macneil · 18/03/2007 20:50

My baby sleeps okay - settles well into deep sleep from about 7pm, wakes at 5.30-6am, sometimes a little later, BUT I'm still giving her a final feed to get her through the night at 11-midnight. She drinks about 2/3 her usual amount and doesn't seem to really wake for it. But I suspect it's mean and bad to disturb her sleep and think I should just go for it and let her wake whenever.

One more complication, I don't swaddle at 7pm, do swaddle at midnight, and have tried letting her sleep unswaddled but apart from the 7-midnight period, she wakes all the time, at least once an hour, and frets and turns all the time.

I know all babies are very different, even from one day to another, but would anyone have a personal experience of how this change in routine has turned out for them?

OP posts:

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MrsApron · 18/03/2007 20:54

your sleep v important too and if the 11 feed means your sleep is better I would keep it up.

nothing stopping you giving it a go though to see what happens babies are amazingly easy to swap about. they change their routing so much in the first two years a wee tweak here and there matters not a jot.

moondog · 18/03/2007 20:55

I woke my second baby for what i believe is commonly known as a dream feed like you are doing and consequently we all slept pretty well.
That is an amazing routine/sleep pattern you have going.Thank your lucky stars.

SydneyB · 18/03/2007 21:05

Hi Macneil, my DD, also 14 weeks, is doing the exact same thing as yours. I've experimented with moving the dreamfeed between 10pm and 1130pm but whatever I do she always wakes at 6.10am pretty much on the dot. But it seems that we're both very lucky with their sleeping so I'm not going to change ANYTHING for now. Once she starts going to 7 regularly I might try and reduce the amount I give at the dreamfeed bit by bit and see if it has an effect.

emwad · 18/03/2007 21:08

My DS is 15 weeks today and I don't wake him for a late feed, unless he starts stirring, although I've only been doing this about 2 weeks. The first night, I just decided not to wake him and see how long he went, fully thinking I would be getting up at 2am with him - but he slept until 7am!!!
We still have him downstairs with us though in a swinging crib and take him up when we go to bed and put him in his cotbed (due to losing daughter to cotdeath aged 18 weeks)
\link[http://www.fsid.org.uk/daytime-sleep-news.html] (hope this link works)
I use a blanket downstairs then put him in sleeping bag in his cotbed.
My 1st DS (now 9) didn't stop having her late feed until she was about 5 months, 2nd DS was 12 weeks, so each one has been different. All babies sleep right through the night its just at what point??
I would try try leaving her and see what happens, although do it when your not too tired incase she wakes up at 2am!!

emwad · 18/03/2007 21:10

\link(www.fsid.org.uk/daytime-sleep-news.html)
Try this!!

emwad · 18/03/2007 21:12

Does the link work or am I doing soemthing wrong???? Haven't done 1 before

castlesintheair · 18/03/2007 21:16

macneil, DD2 is 15 weeks as well and I dropped the "dream feed" at 9 weeks as I fancied an early night one night. She's been sleeping from 8-7 ever since!

I did the same for DS (and DD1) when he was about 4 months but only because a wise old sage was staying with me and she told me to do so.

Personally, I'd be brave and just go for it. You can always pick it up again if it all goes wrong. As long as they are getting enough milk during the day ... and it is sooo nice to go to bed at 9pm if you feel like it.

fizzbuzz · 18/03/2007 21:18

The best way to tell if your dd needs the dream feed, is how much does she take at morning feed. If she is ravenous, I would say she still needs dream feed.

If she isn't interested in morning bottle, she doesn't need dream feed.

Why can't you swaddle her at 7.00pm?

emwad · 18/03/2007 21:20

\link{http://www.fsid.org.uk/daytime-sleep-news.html}

This should work

emwad · 18/03/2007 21:22

\link{http://fsid.org.uk/daytime-sleep-news.html}

AAARRRGGGHHHH

emwad · 18/03/2007 21:25

I give up.............

Original poster

macneil · 18/03/2007 21:26

The link is great as it is, thanks emwad! Oh, that's all so interesting, thanks so much, everyone. No reason I can't swaddle at 7pm. I have to stay up pretty late anyway, as I'm expressing milk because she can't breastfeed, so there's no real reason for me to change, so it is obviously tempting to go for the 'if it aint broke' approach. I'm coming home to England from Canada in a month and she's going to be jetlagged like crazy and I'm basically expecting disaster then anyway, so maybe I will leave it till then, OR maybe I will just go for it. I am certainly tempted to go for it after reading the replies.

OP posts:

emwad · 19/03/2007 22:52

Macneil, did you go for it and if so did she sleep through????

Original poster

macneil · 20/03/2007 03:20

Heh. Okay, I followed fizzbuzz's advice and tried to see how hungry she was at the morning feed. She woke pretty early (6am, it's usually a little later) and was crazy mad-for-it ravenous so I am going to chicken out for maybe another week, or maybe as I said, make the natural cut off point the jet-lag time when we go back. If I do do it it'll be at the weekend because dh has a bit of a crazy late night work/early morning schedule for the forseeable future.

OP posts:

SydneyB · 26/03/2007 14:02

Macneil, I did it! Was at my bro's wedding at the weekend so once we got DD down just weren't going to bother leaving the party to wake her for dreamfeed. And guess what? She went all the way through 7 to 7!! As opposed to the previous two nights when she woke twice. So, last night when we got home we did it again, and she did it again! Not counting my chickens but I just wonder if you leave them and don't interrupt their natural sleep patterns, they actually sleep later if they're not disturbed at 11pm? So, have you done it yet? I know that I am tempting fate by posting this message and that DD will probably be up all night tonight...

cheritongirl · 27/03/2007 10:10

just adding to SydneyB I have found with my ds that actually NOT waking him and feeding him seems to help him sleep longer - think i read somewhere that by about 11pm babies can be in a deep sleep pattern and if disturbed after that can end up waking much earlier - this seems to have been the case with my ds but of course no idea if that is just random chance!

SydneyB · 28/03/2007 08:24

Hi Cheritongirl, I think that's right. I have had a few blips since then - 5 and 6 wake ups but THAT happened when I was giving DD the dreamfeed so have decided to keep not giving it. Does mean that you can go to bed at 8 in the evening if you want to making 5/6 wake-ups not so traumatic as when you're going to bed at midnight after settling for dreamfeed. And when I say blips, night before last she resumed 3 times wake up for a night but again that happened WITH the dreamfeed. Maybe the 'Never wake a sleeping baby' thing is right. Anyway, is working for me for now and does feel like a step forward.

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