So far I've been successful at moving my 14 week LO out of my bed and into his nursery (swing, not yet crib!) without any tears. Baby is no longer nursing all night since he is in his own space, but he still wakes every 3 hours to eat. I've read a lot about dream feeding and wanted to hear if it has worked for you or not. He goes to bed around 7p and actually has gone 5-7 hours without waking, but he has also woken up on his own from any time between 11p and 1am. So, I'm not really sure if a dream feed is necessary since he already wakes up, but has also proven that he can go longer. Ideally, I'd like to feed him around 10pm and have him sleep until 3 so that I can get at least a good stretch of sleep myself! Any tips/advice? Have your babies woken up at fairly regular times to eat? He's only been out of my bed for a week, so maybe I need to give him some more time to regulate his night time feeds, if possible. Thanks!
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Not much advice here - I tried it once and all I did was piss off DS for waking him up - then I put him back in his crib and he woke up on his own 15 mins later to nurse - yeah, I never tried that again!
I think I would give him some more time and see if he extends his sleep on his own
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Adding a dream feed worked really well for us. We started when LO was about 4 weeks. Before he would go to bed around 7:30 and be up at 1, 4, then 7. Now we dream feed around 10:30 and he's up around 5:30 then 8:30. So he still eats the same number of times but the longest stretch is the same time we want to sleep. It took 3-4 tries before it worked, but once DS got used to it, we've had this pattern ever since. He's 7 weeks now.
Also, we use a bottle because DS is still pretty much asleep so nursing wouldn't really work. So I pump for the bottle at 9:30 and then head to bed and have DH do the dream feed. So most nights I can get a 7 hr stretch of sleep
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We did a dream feed (though not technically because Xander was such a light sleeper and would wake when I got him to nurse) and it worked great for us. But I also did it around his normal wake-up time (around 9:00 p.m.), so I don't have experience with doing it at a different time to prevent a wake-up.
I think it would be worth a try though! Good luck!
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I tried it for a few nights because my son picked up an 10:30-11:30 pm wake up during our recent sleep regression struggles that was driving me crazy. It kind of worked in that he stopped waking up at 10:30, but it moved his MOTN feeding earlier, sometimes to 1:30 or 2. So I don't know if it helped or not. He's a bit older (5.5 months) and each night I tried it there were other factors that might have affected his sleep (travel, missed naps, etc).
We moved our LO from his swing to his crib at around that age, and the transition combined with the age (he learned to roll over and I guess went through the four month regression, but I'm not sure on the regression) led to a bunch of wake ups and shorter sleep stretches for a while.
So you might be right that he needs more time to adjust, but I always feel like it can't hurt to try for a night or two? You'll probably know pretty quickly if it's helpful.
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I never really did it. I'm not touching my baby once he's fallen asleep! Once or twice we did it because we had just gotten home so I had to move him from his car seat anyway. I didn't notice a big difference.
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I've never heard of "dream feeding," but I'm assuming that's when you attempt to breastfeed while the infant is still asleep? I'm definitely Team "Don't Wake a Sleeping Baby". If your baby is starting to sleep through the night without needing a feeding, that's a wonderful thing! If they're hungry, they'll let you know. I wouldn't worry too much about feeding every three hours.
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thanks all! @jennypenny what a great idea! I may have to have DH do the same! I think I will just go with the flow for now and see how things evolve. These babes are amazing!
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HUGE vote for Dream Feeds! We did ours around 9:30pm. That put the MOTN feeding on our schedule, at least. Then, as they gained weight and started sleeping longer, that "long" stretch was from 9:30-4:30, instead of 7-1am. I'd rather wake up at 4:30 than 1! We eventually dropped it around 8 months by tapering back their amounts and doing the DF earlier. Never looked back
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We did dream feeds around 11 or 12 pm before we slept but only via bottles! There's no way we'd have the guts to jostle her enough to breastfeed the dreamfeed. I am in huge favor of dream feeds in general though, the more sleep the better!! It worked for us, we think!
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We tried dream feeds a few times and they never really worked for us. DS would take a couple sips and that would be it. We were always deathly afraid of waking him too much so we gave up after a few tries. I definitely think it's worth a try though, so many people have success with it.
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We tried dream feeds too but they never worked. Lo was such a deep sleeper, we couldn't get her to wake up to drink or nurse.
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I have read that dream feeds mess up the baby's circadian rhythm. That first stretch of sleep is the first to lengthen, so while you might not want to go to bed at 7pm, that's when baby is going to get the longest stretch first. As he grows, it should get longer and longer, eventually resulting in fewer and fewer wake ups. If you wake him during that first stretch, his rhythms might get messed up and go back to every 2 or 3 hour wake ups.
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