Should we dream feed?

[aimee-lou]

Earl has always been pretty good at night. He will be asleep by 8pm every night (usually by 7.30) and will only wake once during the night and then up at about 7am......pretty much perfect for us.

I'm trying to make his night feed a little more predictable as it can be anytime between 12.30/1am and 5am While the 5am nights are brilliant it makes for a very cranky and hungry Earl the next day lol. I was wondering whether to re-introduce a dreamfeed - we did for a while but he would wake at 4am on the dot every night lol.....got a bit frustrating so I think he was too young. Now he regularly goes 7-8 hours I was thinking about feeding him at midnight then seeing if he'll go til 6 or later like he would if we were just leaving him.

What are people's opinions?

 

[history_girls]

Aimee-Lou I might stalk your thread! Phoebe has been going down by 9pm (tried 7pm once and she got up at 4am!), eats at 5 am back until 7/8 am. We are planning to put her to bed 5 mins earlier every day but then would like to feed her without her waking up! I'm also not to sure on the basics of dream feeding so will watch with interest!

 

[Seraphim]

I'll be interested in responses too.

I don't quite understand dreamfeeding still... Hazel doesn't wake in the night, she just changes her breathing and I know she's hungry... so I don't know if technically I *am* dreamfeeding.

The thing I don't understand is - I'm still awake and feeding her, so it's not like 'sleeping through'

 

[bloodbinds]

What is dream feeding?? Where they're still asleep while feeding? If so then i like this idea, if she doesn't wake up, but gets her feed, then she'll go straight back down and sleep for a good few more hours right??

 

[tillymum]

t works for us. We dreamfeed our LO every night between 11.30 and 12am. She is BF but for the dreamfeed we/DH gives her formula. I put her to bed around 8.30pm then get her up to feed. She generally now will go to 7/7.30am which is great, though this has taken a while to get to this stage.

If we don't dreamfeed then she will wake anyway around 2.30am and this breaks all our sleep too much, plus she sleeps lighter and is more lightly to wake again around 5.30/6am.

To dreamfeed make sure to feed him in the room he sleeps in with lights down low and whisper to avoid fully waking him, so that he will still be tired and sleepy when you put him to sleep again. I normally change her nappy at this point to make her long sleep more comfortably and to avoid leaks, which does wake her up a bit but she always falls asleep quickly again once the room is dark and quiet.

It's worth giving it a try as at least you can control the night feeds and eventually get more sleep. Good luck with it.

 

[aimee-lou]

Thanks.....we had been doing this before so we will start again I think. Hubby will normally do the dream feed as he could have worked for the bomb squad and Earl barely stirs even after a nappy change lol.

I think we will start next week as it would be nice to get some REAL sleep over the Christmas break lol....wishful thinking maybe but worth a go. I'm asking him to sleep from 12midnight til 6am really (I used to have to get up at 6am and Hubby works shifts so is often up at 5) which at the moment it's common for him to go 8 hours in one go.

Here's hoping. We'll try next week and report back lol.

And to answer questions, if LO is still drowsy while eating then its a dream feed....a friend of mine said it was if they don't cry for a feed as technically they don't wake up then.

And No, it's not classed as sleeping through but the books say that 6 hours is 'sleeping through' before the age of 6 months so we're pretty lucky with Earl to be getting 7-9 hours pretty regularly.

 

[history_girls]

Oh I never knew 6 hours counted as sleeping through! Phoebe will go from 9 until 5 am so I should be well chuffed! Perhaps my standards are too high wanting her to go until until 7am! Gosh I'm already a pushy mother! poor girl - what will i be like when she is a teenager?

She has gone down at 8.30 tonight (and OH is out so dog will bark at 11 and wake her - so might try to feed her then to see i she will go until morning).

Wish us luck!

 

[aimee-lou]

Good Luck - I'm tempted just to start tonight too as I know how to do it (done it before) and it may save a lot of hassle as hubby is on an early in the morning.

In fact.....sod it - I will do it. Just need to find a small alarm clock to have on my bedside table as I have a feeling I may be asleep by 11.30!

We've just got back from picking up hubby from work and Earl slept the whole time in the car so he will most likely be awake sooner rather than later. May as well give it a go as we're up at 5.20 anyway!

 

[CatStorey]

I tried to dreamfeed Chloe once, just to see what happened, but she was having none of it. She wouldn't open her mouth, I was there for ages!! How on earth do you do it??

And I have to say you are lucky lady's with your LO's sleeping 8 hours in one go!! Thats awesome!! Chloe only ever goes 4 hours max. But she will only ever eat around 4oz at a time so I guess thats why. She is only got a small tummy
I can't wait for the day when I wake up and look at my clock to find she has slept for longer, Its what keeps me going!

 

[elly75]

Just try to put a little bit of milk onto their lips. This is usually a good way for them to open their mouths. However, sometimes the next trick is getting them to suck on the bottle after you get it in their mouth.

 

[Chaos]

Hmm I'd do what you think works best for you.

Personally tho I'd be inclined to let him sleep. He's getting him self in to a routine and is close to sleeping right thru the night. If you dream feed at like 11 or something, it might be hard to break the habit. They will wake and let you know when they're hungry.

Autumn was eating 8pm, 12 midnight, 3am, 7am. Then she dropped the midnight feed and went about 4 weeks waking between 2 and 4am for her "middle of the night" feed and then suddenly after about 4 weeks she started skipping it all together. It's been a couple of weeks now of sleeping between 10 and 12 hours a night, her last feed being between 8 and 10.

She is of course very hungry in the morning and wants her breakfast as soon as she wakes, so I tend to put an extra ounce in the bottle for the first thing in the morning feed and if she's hungry enough to take it, that's all good.

Maybe give it another week and see if he naturally puts him self on a thru the night routine?

 

[history_girls]

Having said she went from 9 until 5 - last night it was 8.30 until 1 then up at 5 and not back to bed! i think she must be growing! The 1am feed was great though, she ate and went straight back - almost a dream feed i think but she said she was hungry rather than me trying to feed her. shame it didn't work at 5am!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

we've done since birth, between 10 and 11pm. she has slept through since 6 weeks old so it certainly works for us. i wouldn't do it any later than 11pm or you're cutting into the night.

 

[CatStorey]

I also don't understand how dream feeding around 10-11pm gets them to sleep through/longer?
I feed Chloe around that time when she is awake and she still wakes up 4 hours later. I just don't get how feeding them when they are asleep or awake makes any difference?

 

[aimee-lou]

I didn't get a chance to try it last night as he woke on his own at 11 and then 3 - I've had to up his bottles to 7oz as he drained 6oz every bottle last night and yesterday.

Chaos - this is the quandry I'm in. I'm going to let him get used to the larger feeds first and then re-think. I don't think he's ever going to get later than 5.30 while he's on milk though as his apetite is so big, but it's manageable either way lol. Nights like last night are not!! lol

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I also don't understand how dream feeding around 10-11pm gets them to sleep through/longer?
I feed Chloe around that time when she is awake and she still wakes up 4 hours later. I just don't get how feeding them when they are asleep or awake makes any difference?

It doesn't make any difference whether they're asleep or awake, correct. But it does make a difference what time their last feed is to what time they wake up! (providing LO is actually waking due to hunger, lots of older babies wake for other reasons)

If LO goes, say 6 hours at night, if you put them down to bed after last feed at 8pm, then wait for her to wake up naturally, she'll prob wake at 2am. But if you dreamfeed at 11pm, you shouldn't hear from her until 5am.

Not an exact science though, as many LOs habit wake every few hours rather than because they're actually hungry. In those cases dreamfeeding might not help much.

 

[moomin_troll]

zanes 15 months and still dream feeds it drives me nuts but when i replace the feed with water i get full on screaming till he gets his milk.

i have a year until i really need to cut it out as i dont want him weeing himself in the night too much while potty training.

i cant give advice about how to stop it as nothing ive done has helped and i dont think its wrong but it is a pain in the bum

 

[CatStorey]

I also don't understand how dream feeding around 10-11pm gets them to sleep through/longer?
I feed Chloe around that time when she is awake and she still wakes up 4 hours later. I just don't get how feeding them when they are asleep or awake makes any difference?

It doesn't make any difference whether they're asleep or awake, correct. But it does make a difference what time their last feed is to what time they wake up! (providing LO is actually waking due to hunger, lots of older babies wake for other reasons)

If LO goes, say 6 hours at night, if you put them down to bed after last feed at 8pm, then wait for her to wake up naturally, she'll prob wake at 2am. But if you dreamfeed at 11pm, you shouldn't hear from her until 5am.





Not an exact science though, as many LOs habit wake every few hours rather than because they're actually hungry. In those cases dreamfeeding might not help much.

Ah, I get it. Its so you don't have to wait for them to wake up to feed, you could say feed then go to bed.

How long after the last feed can you do a dream feed??
Chloe goes around 4 hours between feeds at night so its not much point for me to dreamfeed I guess. Cos I usually give her last feed at 9pm and she wakes around 1.30am, but if I was to stay awake and dreamfeed her at say 11pm she would still only go through until 3.30am.
Maybe when she starts sleeping longer I could do it.