Dream feed and help needed for night feeds!

[Mama Jules]

Hi, ladies: 

I have a 4-month old who has been waking every 3 hours to eat b/c that was his schedule after his intestinal surgery in the hospital at 5 days old (he was there for 23 days).  Now that he's older and doing a dairy-free diet (pumping breastmilk exclusively) his gas is better...so I'm trying to use the EASY 4-hour schedule to stretch out his feedings.  He is doing OK on the program so far, but NIGHTS are the next frontier.  Right now he's only taking about 5 oz at each feed, sometimes a lot less.  So the "tanking up" part isn't so easy with him just yet but we're working on it.  He's been waking up like clockwork each night at 4 or 4:30 am to eat ever since he came home from surgery, and then again at either 5:30 or 6:30 (seems to be to poop).  Then he is up for the day at 5:30/6:30.  Sigh.

 So I would like to eliminate the 4 am feeding and get him to 6:30/7 am but am also scared he actually IS hungry since he doens't always tank up during the day.  I've only been doing the BW plan for a few days now, but like I said, he had been on a 3 hour eating schedule so he was kind of scheduled. 

Tonight I'm going to try to go in at 3:30 and do the BW suggestion of waking him up a bit to throw off his 4/4:30 am wake-up.  Then if he does wake up, I'm going to try to soothe him without feeding him.  We'll see how it goes.  Has anyone tried this and had it work?

Any suggestions for getting rid of the 4/4:30 am feed besides what I'm going to try above?

Thanks for your help, girls. What a stressful time!!!
Mama Jules

[Mama Jules]

HI, Jane:

I'll have my husband write down his schedule today (he watches him) and feeds and then let you know..any advice is welcome!

Well, I did the dream feed for the first time last night at 10:30ish and Max did eat ALL 5 oz while he appeared to be sleeping.  He woke up crying at 2:30 am (not his usual time), but I just picked him up once and stuck his paci in and jiggled him, then put him back down in the crib and he did settle pretty quickly.  Then at 4:30 a.m, which IS his usual time to wake up, I did the same thing.  However, he woke up at 4:50 a.m. and I could tell he was hungry so he ate a few oz. (maybe 2-3) and then I got him back to sleep at 5:30ish.  Then I woke up at 7 and went to his crib and he was sitting in there, looking around and "talking".  So I think we made some progress getting him from 11-about 5 a.m. without eating.  I'll take any little progress I can get!   I'm hoping as he eats more during the day he will be able to sleep better at night.   Also, he does have gas that wakes him up and tooted at the 2:30 and 4:30 am feeds before settling down (this might be a result of his surgery, he's tooting a lot less now that I'm on the dairy-free diet).

So I'll send over the daytime schedule to see what we can tweak.  I just hope my husband will be alert enough to follow the schedule and the techniques.  I think so, considering he gets more done with his home business when Max is happy and sleeping.

Thanks again!! Mama Jules

[Mama Jules]

Thanks, Jane!  So far today here's his schedule (according to my husband):

7 am woke up, ate 5 oz.
7:30 played
9:15 slept till 10 a.m.
10:40 AM Ate 5 oz
11:30 Play
12:45 PM Sleep
3 PM Eat 5 oz
3:30 PM Play
4:45-5:10 slept
5:10-6 played
6-6:30 slept again (?)

So we're going to see how the schedule goes again tonight.  My question is: do you think if he eats 5 oz at 7:30 PM and also the 11 PM dream feed, don't you think he should be able to make it through to 7 a.m.?  Or should I see how it goes and if he wakes up hungry again at 5 a.m.?  I feel like I gave in this morning but I didn't know how much he was eating.  I feel like today I have a better handle on it.  I have a few friends who say 4 months old is still a little young to be sleeping with no food from 11 PM to 7 a.m.  What do you think?  I know the goal is to get him to sleep through the night, but how long didi it take for you?

Thanks for listening to me ramble. I know there are millions of people on this site but I feel kind of like I'm the only one out there doing this!

Jules

[Mama Jules]

Hi, Jane:  Thanks for your feedback!  The wind-down for Max is usually we cuddle him, read him a book, nothing too stimulating in the 30 minutes before he goes to sleep. What do you recommend?  I think Derek holds Max and puts him down with his paci in his mouth when he's drowsy.  Although tonight he seemed drowsy but then was kicking out of his swaddle when we tried to put him down at 7:30. It took him until 8:45 to finally calm down. that was with crying and pick up/put down and then he kind of whimpered in his crib for a bit before finally going to sleep.  Sigh.

Re. the morning activity and nap--we've just started doing the BW schedule strictly, so I'm not sure if that's normally a short nap.  He may have stayed up too long and we missed his window.  What do you recommend?

Thanks!!  Julie

[Mama Jules]

Hi, Jane (and whomever else reads this):  So we had a very bad night.   Max would not go down to sleep and at 7:30 and screamed and cried and we did the pick up/put down for a bit but then he finally whimpered until 8:45 PM and settled down. We did the dream feed from 10:30-11 PM and he ate 5 oz.  Then he woke up at 12:30 AM crying...my DH changed his diaper b/c we couldn't figure out what was wrong (he seemed gassy, too).   He finally went to sleep at 1 am and then I snuck in and woke him up at 3:30 am to try to break his usual 4:30 am waking.  He still woke up at 5 am and my husband (who was doing night duty) made the mistake of feeding him a 5 oz bottle then instead of just a few oz or better yet, seeing if he'd go back to sleep with pu/pd.   He slept from 5:30-7:45 (b/c we didn't wake up sooner to wake him up).  Now we're completely screwed on our schedule.  I am so bummed out.  What do we do?  He's not hungry right now (it's 8 a.m.).  If he ate at 5, do we wait till 9 to feed him?  That's when he's supposed to be taking a nap??? I am so confused and irritated and sleepless!  Please help with any advice..thanks!

Julie