Late Night Feed Confusion

[LuvMyBaby]

Have started in the last few days to try a late night feed (around 10.30) with my ds who is 12 weeks old. His routine before was feed at 6.30, bed at 7.30 and he would sleep through till approx 4ish am, waking at this time for a feed, which is fab I know. I thought though he might go a little later with a late night feed but he is still waking at the same time and still wanting a feed. Should I give it a bit longer or just not bother, I know he is still young and will probably find his own way in the end anyway. Any thoughts for anyone, thanks....

hi there luvmybaby. Am in the same boat as you. Am going to start late night feed tonight as my ds (who is 14.5 weeks old) sleeps from about 8pm - 4am . Am a bit worried about upsetting the applecart and messing up the good thing that I have. Have read baby whisperer by tracey hogg and she seems to think that it will 'tank' the babe up to see it through to next morning. Do you wake your ds fully to feed or try to do it in a state of sleep ? Any advice from anyone whos trid this would be greatly appreciated!

The baby whisperer book refers to this as a "dream feed" and you feed them in their sleep. I was quite nervous the first time as I thought ds was bound to wake up, but he was fine. You usually don't need to burp them either as they are unlikely to take in air when they feed like this.

These days I express a bottle in the morning and dp gives this to ds last thing before he comes to bed.

my dd has always been in bed by 730/8pm, and she had a 4am wakey time too, but now she is 5 mths, and over the last 2 mths she has gradually got later and later in waking, she now wakes at 730am

i didnt change anything or do anything special, except i did notice that even though she was still waking at 4am (she would chat away, not cry) if i gave her 10 mins she would just go back to sleep on her own, so she obviously wasnt hungry

so if i do hear her throught the night stirring, she goes back to sleep within 5-10 mins, if she wakes at all

i think it was just natural progression

I tried that and it never worked for me. Baby took late feed and still woke. Maybe try a bit longer though, it works for some

I think most bbaies do the waking up at 4am until around 3/4 months so if I were you i'd just hang in there and not bother waking up for a dream feed. I just followed the mantra of 'never waking a sleeping baby' and ds slept through after about 3 and a half months

Thanks for your advice everyone, a new problem has since reared its head, my ds has now started to refuse a bottle altogether, he is arching his back and turning his head away, crying uncontrollably, its awful. He was always having one bottle a day at 7.00pm which my dh always gave, he is refusing this and the 11.00am bottle feed which i wanted to introduce. I am beginning to wish I hadn't changed anything.

oh no poor you

maybe its something to do with teething? im sure someone will be along with more advice soon, you havent done anything wrong, keep going

Nailpolish, thanks for your encouraging words, I have the flu at the moment and am just feeling sorry for myself !!!

Sleepymama - tried giving ds a dream feed without waking him, he seemed to start sucking, took 1/2 oz and then promptly threw up so the next couple of nights we woke him up, to be honest though he only ever took 4oz as he was still very sleepy.

I think for me it has definately upset the applecart and I think I will go with nailpolish and vict17 and hold out for a natural progression.

poor you luvmybaby hope things improve soon and that your flu gets better. Will let you know how the dream feed goes but am very worried now. Have just started on Tracey hoggs e.a.s.y plan - which recommends feeding 7,11,3,7 + dream feed. I started to try to sort my sons napping problems out (on another thread). Bit worried as he's supposed to catnap in the afternoon but seems to be really tired and sleeping over hour. I just want some sort of schedule to my life at moment - he wasn't feeding at the same time everyday so naps were all over the place and so were bedtimes. Just a question though - does anyone think thatall these books and stuff mean that you get no life as they all suggest putting the baby to sleep in crib for naps? I haven't been out all day - for fear that he might start his short nap cycle again HELP!!!!!

I think that it is easier to stay in when establishing a routine but then as time goes by, you could schedule your outings around his naptime, ie sleep in the car etc. To be honest, my little one is only 12 wks so we are still trying to get onto a routine ourselves. I am following the Gina Ford at the moment but somedays it seems we are all over the place !!!

Have a good time in Ireland and I hope sticking to the routine goes well. Had a bad 1/2 hour - thought I'd finally cracked my little ones napping problems today - but he's woke up screaming again - obviously still tired. Can't calm him without feeding him again - its only been 2 1/2 hours since last feed !!!! any advice greatly appreciated...

Sorry luvmybaby - wrong thread !!!! got the bit about you going to ireland wrong But the rest of it was right !!!!!

Sleepymama, are you breast or bottle or a mixture of the two ??

bottle only.

Wondering if maybe he is going through a growth spurt, does he usually want to feed that regularly or is it something new ??

On a different note, the reason I chose Gina Ford routine as opposed to the Baby Whisperer was because my ds has been a 45 min napper since 4 weeks old and I felt her length of sleep times were a little unrealistic, gina ford suggest 45 mins am, 2.15hrs lunchtime and 45mins pm, which means I only have to try and extend one nap.

He's been doing it since he started the 45 min naps which were about 4 weeks ago. Have upped his intake of milk twice and he's taking it ok but still screaming
Re: nightfeeds - am useless. I chickened out last night Was worried about upsetting applecart. DS slept from 8pm - 2.30 am (something new starting over last 2 days) managed to calm him with dummy after 15 mins. Then he slept until 5.30 am. This now means that my schedule would have been wrong again - so I fed him until he fell asleep (around 4 oz) an then got him up at 7.45 am and fed him again. Don't know if thats a really bad thing to do - has anyone else tried that to make the schedule prtty much the same everyday?

Sleepymama - in the Gina Ford book (sorry to keep harping on about her but I have only ever followed her routine so far!!) she tells you to do precisely that when babes wakes at around that time, so you would give a feed and then give another like top up feed at 7/7.30am, to keep babes on routine.

HTH

So its ok to keep doing it then ? But won't he just get used to that 5.30 am feed and never sleep through????

Well she advises this on the basis that you are giving a night feed (ha ha !!! didn't work for us ) and if a 3-4 month old is still waking up hungry then feed and give top up in the morning. Also recommends increasing 10.30pm feed if babes is still waking early. Could you perhaps just see if over the next few weeks he gradually wakes up later by himself???