Dreamfeed or wake to sleep?

[StrongInside]

Hi,

I’ve read and read about both methods, but being 8 weeks into the 4 month sleep regression I’m so sleep deprived I don’t understand anything anymore. My LO goes to bed at 6.30-7.30pm, depending on the timing of the last nap. Then it can be 2-3 hours until the hungry cry. I try going to bed no later than 8 to unwind and catch some sleep, but if a dreamfeed is likely to help us get out of this torture, I will stay up till 10pm. Do I still do a dreamfeed if LO wakes up at, say, 8.30pm? Because that means I need to stay up even later to leave sufficient time until the dreamfeed (2-3 hours recommended gap).

Then there is the Wake to Sleep method (Tracy Hogg and Gina Ford, I think). It sounds counter-intuitive to wake LO up if the goal is for us both to get some rest. And it’s my understanding that the ideal wake up time is meant to be 10-10.30pm which is simply too late for me to stay up till. I could force myself to do it or set a quiet alarm, but does this method actually help? Also, is it not a bit cruel to wake the baby up for the sake of me getting more sleep?

I get really sad reading about babies sleeping for 5-12 hours from 6 weeks of age when mine is nearly 24 weeks and only slept 6 hours on a handful of nights before this horrible regression started.

In anyone’s experience, does a baby’s larger size mean they could need more calories than breastmilk can provide for sleeping through?

Thanks for any advice!

I always did a dream feed.
DD1 was formula fed and slept from 7pm to 5.30am from 13 weeks, with a dream feed at 11pm. Pick her up asleep, pop bottle in mouth and she fed and then put her down still asleep. Brilliant

Do the same with BF DD2, but she now has a habit of waking for the dream feed and I have to feed her back to sleep. She was also doing 6 hour stretches from 14 to 20 weeks, but hasn’t done more than 4 hours since then. She is now 28 weeks. She wakes, feeds for ten minutes and then sleeps again so I can’t moan too much. But she won’t settle without boob and I know it’s creating a rod for my own back. Just don’t know how to settle her without boob.

So basically it does work, but can create a habit. It your shoes I would try it. Bed at 7pm with a feed. Then feed again at ten and then you go down for the night and see what happens...

Totally a rod, I’ve created the same. Have you tried introducing a comforter with your scent and/or a dummy? Only asking because a comforter didn’t occur to me until recently.

See, that’s where my question comes in. Even if I stick to the exact same bedtime (sometimes not possible due to teething, a cold or a longer late afternoon nap etc.), LO wakes up at different times for the first feed. So if I feed at 9pm, two hours after bedtime, surely feeding an hour later would be too soon?

So I do a dream feed at say 10.30pm (ish). Bed at 7pm with a feed. If she wakes before 10.30pm, at day 8.45pm for example I give her a quick boob then, but still do proper full dream feed at 10.30pm.
So essentially she gets her 10.30pm dream feed no matter what. (Unless she had boob as close as say 10pm, then I might not bother)