Couple of questions re Dream Feed & Feeding to Sleep

[nm123]

DD is 4.5 months and EBF.  After her bath I feed her to sleep lying down, then transfer her into her cot. This is usually around 7pm and it can take anywhere from 15-60 minutes (average about 30 minutes though) for her to drift off and be unlatched without waking.  She used to only wake once a night at about 3-4am, have a feed and sleep through until 7-8am then up for the day.  More recently (I think due to GS) she's been waking twice - at about 1am and 5am - and I always feed her back to sleep.

I'm wondering whether I should introduce a Dream Feed at 10pm-ish when we go to bed with the hope of her sleeping through a bit more?  Would this create a good habit in terms of getting her used to going longer through the night?  Or is it a bit late in the game to start at DF now?  I've always been concerned that I'd wake her too much and it would be a nightmare trying to resettle her, or that it would create a habitual waking, and also that DF is a bit like forcefeeding?!

In terms of feeding-to-sleep (F2S) I know this isn't a great habit, but I'm not sure how to break it! Currently she never cries when she wakes in the MOTN, feeds and goes back to sleep (latched on), so our nights have been relatively easy.  But getting her down for a nap in the day is a different story (hard to settle her, v short naps etc... some sucess with increased A times, W2S etc but think this is now either just her biology/developmental or a habit we've created  ), and I wonder if this is partly due to the fact that she is confused because during the day I try to stick to EASY and don't F2S (which is obviously what she's used to).  I'm also conscious that I won't BF forever and that both she and I will need to find another way to get her to fall asleep initally at bedtime and also re-settle during any NWs.

Sorry for the waffle... I guess I'm concerned that I'm using the boob for APOP too much and will create a rod for my own back.  There has been the odd occasion I hear her snuffling at night and just put a hand on her chest and she drifts back off to sleep for 1-2 hours before waking again, but this hasn't happened for good few weeks now.

Also, our nights are pretty good and not too disrupted so I'm loathed to fix things if they ain't broke, if that makes sense... But with weaning/solids looming I want to be prepared for how to tackle sleep issues too!

Thanks v much in advance.

[Erin M]

Well, the conventional thought on F2S is that if you feed your LO to sleep, then they'll wake in the night looking for it again to get back to sleep.  That being said, my ds feeds to sleep most nights still (he was 1 yesterday!) and he sleeps just fine during the night -- lost the NFs at around 9/10 months and while we do still have some NWs due to OT, teeth, etc we haven't fed at night for quite awhile.  Some moms are able to feed their LOs to sleep and not have it be a  prop issue, so you might be fine.    The idea is eventually you would change up your BT routine so nursing isn't the last thing that you're doing.  You can start reading stories after you nurse, put her down when she's drowsy but not asleep, etc.  But you do have time to work on that. 

As for the df, you could always try it for about a week and see how it works -- you never know, it might get her through the night.  For some LOs, though it can lead to more unsettled sleep, so just be aware ahead of time that it might not be the way to go. 

[Fiver]

As Erin said, some can F2S and it not be a problem at night.  FWIW, with DD I nearly always F2S and she's no longer interested in having a feed in the night now.

Also the way the body handles day and night sleep seems to me to mean that you can do both differently without too much of a problem.