BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: clairegregory on August 26, 2009, 11:46:32 am
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My 11 week old son has started to wake more frequently in the night after the introduction of a DF.We have followed routine from about a week old, using Baby Whisperer EASY and a little bit of another sleep method. Tried to combine the two.
He has a good daytime routine and is very content during the day (see routine below), naps well and settles with swaddling and about 5 mins shush pat easily. Rarely use dummy only if needed during wind down.
We were following his lead regarding night time feeds when we would feed him when he woke-this was about 12am-1am, occasionally 2am, and then he would wake for a feed again at about 5-5.30am. He is EBF (single-side feeding) but would take one of the night feeds via a bottle of expressed milk which DH would give. We were happy with this as he was managing 1 long stretch of 5-6 hours but thought it might be wise to start a DF which was a better time for DH.
We have been doing it for 2 weeks, with a DF at 10.30pm (taking 6oz via bottle easily and going back to sleep) but we are finding he now wakes for 2 breast fed feeds which are getting earlier and earlier each night and then he's becoming very difficult to settle afterwards. Last night he woke at 1.20am and I tried settling him for 30 mins with dummy and shush/pat, he slept for 15mins then woke again. I then fed him, he didn't eat for long maybe 8 mins,whilst usually he'll eat for 20-30 mins during day, and then wouldn't settle. He finally settled for an hour only and woke again at 4.10am. I left him to cry for 10 mins but he didn't fall back to sleep. DH spent 30 mins settling him, and he did fall asleep for about 1 hour again. He woke at 6.15am crying again so I fed him and he only drank for 5 mins and was not interested in dummy either. Fortunately he did settle till 7.30 this am. I'm exhausted!!I don't mind feeding him twice in night if he's really hungry, but the crying isn't a hunger cry, I think he just wants to suck, and when he is fed he's only taking a small amount. He doesn't suck well on a dummy and it falls out really easily or he spits it out.
Can't work out what doing wrong, or whether its developmental stuff, growth spurt (but not eating more during day, sticking with 3 hours), or he's got bad sleep associations (but he settles well during day with little input).
Please help!!
Should I lose the dream feed and go back to following his lead and hope we will only have 2 feeds between 7pm and 7am again or should I stick with it??
Yesterdays EASY routine:
7.30 am wake
E 7.30am
A 8.00am-8.45
S 8.45 wind down then sleep by 8.55 Sleep till 10.15 ( I wake him for next feed)
E 10.30am
A 11-11.40am
S 11.40am wind down then sleep by 11.50 Sleep till 2.15pm ( I wake him)
E 2.15pm-2.45
A 2.45pm-4.00 (we were out so more difficult to wind down and put to sleep but not terribly fussy)
S 4pm-5pm
E 5pm-5.30pm
A bathtime and bedtime routine 5.30-6.30
E 6.30-6.45
S wind down 6.45, asleep (awake in cot when put down) by 7pm
DF 10.30pm
Thanks,
Claire (mum to george 11 weeks old)
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Hi there, I have been experiencing the same problem with my 9 week old....I used to be able to get 5 hours or more out of him by cluster feeding in the evening putting him down around 8pm and he wouldn't wake anymore until 2am or so..I started doing the dream feed hoping i would cancel out the 2 am feeding and he go longer...but its not working..he's been waking more and not settling so easily..it's been a rough day. I say scrap the DF...maybe they don't need it? I'm going to try without it this week...see how it goes, I will let u know how it goes!
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My baby responded poorly to the DF as well and I'm sorry I did it. By the time I figured out that he slept better w/out it, it was already a habit. He STILL wakes ( months later) around 10/10:30 most nights automatically. Thankfully, he usually settles quickly with some patting and shushing and I don't feed him.
I agree to try skipping it and see what happens.
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Same problem!!! Admitedly only tried it one night! LOL - will give it a week and if not = screw it! :-)
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I am in the exact same boat (except I am jealous of your daytime naps). Whenever I try the DF, DS(9 weeks) will only go back to sleep and then is up ever hour, looking to snack. It drove us mad...so the past few nights we just put him to bed and let him wake when he's hungry...he goes to sleep for 7pm and then usually will wake anytime between 1130 and 130. Then usually once more around 430 or so...
I'll reintroduce it if things start going downhill. It just seems like the DF is just enough to starve off the hunger pains and sets a pattern of just waking/feeding enough to do so without ever getting enough to make it through for a few hours.
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I started dream feeds when my baby was 3.5 months. She is now 5 months and wakes every hour or more from 1 AM until 7 AM, where she had been sleeping from 8 PM until 3 to eat (one night she slept until 5), then on to 7AM. Dream feeds have really messed our nights up, but I've been afraid to drop them. I was trying to get another couple of hours out of her, but I'm getting less. Maybe we should all agree to drop them and see what happens.
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I have to say though....when he was a newborn the dream feeds worked fine, I guess he was so young and eating too frequently for me to notice anyhow. And he never really slept a long length of time anyhow. Then after getting told off by my Mom for disturbing him to feed without him waking for it..I stopped doing it...then I started again the other day to see if it would prolong sleep..huge mistake...then Im thinking, well maybe if I stuck with it and been consistant it may have worked out better. But the last couple nights since I stopped DF he is still waking frequently, posssibly looking for the dropped feed? But Im gonna give it another while...see how it goes and I will update!
Im thinking maybe when the babies get a feed they dont really need (cry for) it fools up their own particular personal feeding schedule and then they dont know when the next one is and when they feel a small pang of hunger they're crying out? I know my LO is deff. gonna let me know when he's hungry loud and clear! maybe its a more efficient feeding when they have a totally empty belly and bigger appetite?
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I dropped DF for the past two nights. The first night she didn't wake up at the normal 10 time when I do dream feed, but she woke up at 12:30 and ate. Last night she woke up at 10, but I patted her until she slept and she woke and ate again at 12:30. She only woke at 3:40 and 5 last night, which is a MAJOR improvement. I reswaddled and patted her to sleep both those times. Really think dropping the DF is going to help.
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AG's surgery has really thrown a spanner in the works with attempting to start a DF. And to be honest I get LESS sleep doing a DF at 11pm than I do if I have to give her a top up at 5am... Not sure I can really be bothered... Is it worth it ladies?
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Just an update..I've continued to drop the DF and just feed DS when he wakes...so for the past week he has gone to sleep by 7pm and then wakes between 1130--1230 to feed...last night he then slept until 5am! The other issue I had with DF is that DS always seems to have a dirty, poopy diaper by 11pm and I have to change it, so feeding him without waking would be next to impossible for us.
It's such a good concept (the DF) but unfortunately just doesn't seem to work for us!
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hey Tanya that is great I am glad its working for you! On the other hand, I haven't done the dream feed with Harley since my last post and he's still waking usually between 11-12 and then 230ish then 5 and then he wants to stay up after that! I haven't had any improvement but I dont know if this is a growth spurt week? and a coincidence that he started it when I started DFing him? So hopefully he will go back to his old self