Dropped Dreamfeed, now sleep is wonky- 9 MO old

[Omwinston]

My little one has been a pretty good sleeper since 3.5 months. He generally sleeps through the night.
I dropped the dreamfeed three weeks ago. I skipped it once by accident and he slept through the night anyway.
He then slept through the night for 3 consecutive nights and since then he's woken up to eat in the early morning- 12,2 or 3 am about once every three nights.

Is there any harm in starting up the dreamfeed again? Given that it's been 3 weeks of inconsistent sleep I think it's been too long to blame it on a sleep regression, right? He has learned a lot of new skills lately.

Do some babies just need the dreamfeed for a longer time?

Thanks for your help.

[nevinsmama]

Hi there, new skills can definitely throw LO's for a loop! That said would you like to take a look here and see if any of this helps?
"How do I implement/drop the dreamfeed?"
Would you like to post your EASY? We could see if there is anything there that needs a tweak...
Hope this helps!

[Omwinston]

Thanks. I did originally at 8 months slowly move the dream feed up but he started waking for a feed around the same time as he is now. I thought at the time he was not ready, so I kept it for another few weeks. Then he slept through for a few nights without it so I thought we were done. Now I'm back to thinking that he might not be ready to drop it yet.

Here's our usual routine. He naps for about 1hr to 1.5hrs in the morning and usually 1.5 in the afternoon. If he has a short morning nap he will usually nap 2 hours in the afternoon.

Wake: 7, talking in crib till 7.30
Feed: 7.30
Breakfast: 8.15
Nap: 9.45-11
Feed: 11.30
Lunch: 12
Nap: 2-3.30
Feed: 3.30 or 4
Dinner: 5
Bath & Nurse: 7.15
Sleep:7.30

[nevinsmama]

Hi again! To me, your routine looks great! Going to get some more BF eyes here and see what they think. I know DS and I did DF for a long time but can't for the life of me remember when we cut it out, ( ahh, sleep deprivation)!!

[Omwinston]

Thanks, any advice will be welcome! I did end up dream feeding my LO last night and he slept through the night.
He's now 9 months and 2 weeks old. I way prefer the dream feed over the 1am wake up call, so I don't mind. But I want to make sure we're not getting a bad habit going or unknowingly getting into something... you know?
My LO is usually fairly textbook so I thought we'd be done DF by now.

When should I think about dropping the DF again? Before we dropped it during the DF would drink a lot some days and not on others. Do any other babes need the DF this long?
He's doing really well with solids, he eats an absolute ton. He will eat a whole banana or avocado, yogurt and meat and veggie puree during each of his meals.

[Erin M]

Hi, just wanted to pop on and say that I didn't drop the df with my ds until around 10 months -- some moms do keep it longer -- I generally don't question good sleep too much!  Is he taking good feeds at all the other feeds?  My only concern would be of he's trying to replace another feed with the df (which wouldn't be awful either, there have been moms, especially working moms, who have done that too, just not the most practical way to go sometimes!).  I might try keeping it as a shorter feed too and see if he still sleeps through.

[Omwinston]

Ok, good to know, thanks so much. I guess we'll just keep it until we encounter some issue with it.
He is feeding well for all his other feeds, so I don't think he's replacing it. We're nursing 4 times a day now...

[Erin M]

That sounds great!