Dreamfeed and waking

[bensmomma]

Hello everyone,
    My 5 month old is habitually waking between 3:00am and 3:30am. We do a dreamfeed at 11:00pm which is our second attempt at since it didn't work when he was younger. Been doing it for a week.  He still wakes even with dreamfeed. I've tried doing PU/PD but gets very upset (trying to keep DS1 alseep as their rooms are beside each other) so I end up feeding him which he will always take a full feed or pretty close to it so I assume he is hungry.   Since he is being fed at 3:30am he will sleep then until 7:00am or close to it.  My question is: Is he waking because he is hungry..growth spurt or have I trained him to wake at this time by feeding.  It seems that this waking started around time we started dreamfeed. Coincidence? 
Our day looks like this:
Awake :6:00-7:00am
Eat (bottle): 6:30-7:30am
Activity lasts: 1.5-1.75 hrs I will put him in his crib before seeing any signs as he goes from okay to overtired pretty fast.  By the time I see cues it is too late.
Sleep: usually 1.5-2 hours nap but will still pull the ocaissional 40 min
and the same continues until the late pm where he will have a catnap before bedtime ritual.  Bath, Bottle Bed.

He usually puts himself to sleep without Pacifier but a blanket and sometimes needs a little reassurance from me..soft voice or hand on back.

[calebs mommy]

Sometimes the dreamfeed can cause sleep disturbances.  Have you tried doing it earlier, like maybe 10 or 10:30?  What made you start again with the dreamfeed?  Was DS waking to feed in the night before you restarted the dreamfeed?  Have you tried just doing shh/pat in the night to see if he will go back to sleep without feeding?  How many times does he eat during the day?  Sorry so many questions, I am just trying to get the whole picture. 

[Colin Macs Mom]

In addition to Stephanie's DF questions, I'm also wondering how much LO eats when you feed at 3 or 3:30?

[bensmomma]

Sorry, When I reread my post I realized it was a bit disjointed.  We restarted the DF in hopes he would sleep straight through...I know a bit greedy .  He was waking at around 1-2am for a feed.  I have tried to do shh/pat and it will put him back to sleep for 15 mins or so and the cycle will continue until he eventually fully wakes and I have to feed him anyway or he will flat out cry.  We try to stick to 4 hr easy ( short naps throw it off a bit) so he is eating q4h  plus the DF and takes 6-6.5 ozs with DF being 5-5.5ozs.  When he wakes to feed at 3-3:30am he will take another 5-5.5 ozs and go back to sleep on his own with maybe a little calming by voice. A typical day looks like:

6:30-7:00am Awake
7:00-7:30 Eat ( We often find if we try to feed him right away he'll only take maybe 4-4.5 ozs so we wait a bit and he seems to get hungrier.
7:00/7:30-8:30/9:00am put in crib and asleep in 5-10mins.
9/9:30-10:30-11:00am sleep

11:00/11:30 Eat
12:30/1:00 in bed will sleep another 1.5-2 hr nap

3:00 Eat
4:30 cat nap for 40 mins
Bedtime ritual of Bath/ Bottle and Bed starts at 5:30-6:00pm
Asleep by 6:30-7:00pm at the latest.

10:45pm DF

Of course the day may vary a bit in his nap times  especially if naps are shorter but we try to stick to eating every 4 hrs.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

[Colin Macs Mom]

At his age he will likely still need a night feed for a little while. That's normal, and I wouldn't put too much into trying to get rid of it.

[bensmomma]

Thanks,  knowing that he'll still need the feed I can ease off trying to stop him.  I think I'll try the dreamfeed at 10:00pm instead....at least I can get a bit more sleep .

[Colin Macs Mom]

You could also try cluster feeding in the evening... although often a LO won't cluster feed and then take a DF.

[calebs mommy]

If the earlier dreamfeed doesn't work (still causes the 3 am wake up), then I would just wait and feed him when he wakes on his own.  The dreamfeed doesn't work for all babies.  Most do the dreamfeed until 6 or 7 months once solids are well established.  So, like Colin Mac's Mom said, it is not unusual for babies to still need to eat at this age, whether it be the dreamfeed or just whenever they wake up on their own.  Once you get solids going, then you can start trying to add more ounces to the daytime and cut back at night.  Good luck to you!  Let us know how the 10:00 dreamfeed goes.

[bensmomma]

Update...tried to do the df AT 10:00pm but hes has woken up on his own both nights. He goes back to sleep than sleeps until 3:00am again.  He sometimes wakes himself up by rolling over on his belly around 2:00am then will go right back to sleep when rolled back over and sleep until 5:00am then.  I have to feed him at this point..so he definetly needs the feed in the middle of the night...I think I'll try the 10:00pm DF for a few more nights and if still 3:00am waking then we'll drop it.

[Fenella]

Hi I am watching this post out of fascination as we are going through the same thing.  Did df for months (now 6months) but never seemed to really help introduced it again recently and still not great.  Let me know how you get on with the earlier one.

[rach71]

hi i'm also watching with baited breath as i have also started the dream feed about 10.00 my daughter is 4mths and we have also done away with her dummy this week when i give the dream feed (bottle) at 10 she then wakes at 3 for another feed which is then breast i was hoping the bottle may help her go that bit longer not too sure weather to just make df breast as well 

[bensmomma]

We have tried to do the the dreamfeed for the last 5 nights now and he beats us to it.  So we feed him, he goes right back to sleep and 3 nights in a row he has slept until 6:00am-6:45am. .  I really hope this is a trend.  I could really get used to 7-8 hours of sleep in a row. Now all I need is to get his big brother to stop waking thoughout the night. We also started cereal on Saturday....coincidence? 

[Colin Macs Mom]

Do you mean 6pm?

[calebs mommy]

Michelle- YEA!!! I am so happy for you!  I hope this trend sticks around for you!

[Fenella]

OOOh think we will be trying the 10pm df.  Could well be the cereal though.  My first son slept through off and on from 10 wks but consistently from around 4 months as soon as we started weaning.  Really pleased for you.