Trying the dreamfeed tonight...

[fluvly]

Even though my 7 week-old has been on the EASY routine for 10 days, I've not done the dreamfeed yet, for fear she would not fall asleep easily again. She has been always waking up at 1.30 and then at 5.30/6.

Tonight I will try to do the dreamfeed - how do I go about it? Do I lift her from the cot while she's still sleeping or do I wake her first?

My baby passes a lot of gas (she swallows a lot of air when breastfeeding) so I normally burp her after a feed - I read on the baby whisperer's book that burping the baby is not needed, but can I do it anyway?

Thank you!

[fluvly]

I know they might be silly questions, but can anyone help me?

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

With my ds1 we did the dreamfeed and we would just take him out of his crib while sleeping and feed him. He wouldn't wake up. We never burped him in the middle of the night because when he fed while he was asleep he was so relaxed he didn't really take in air. The df worked well for him.

We don't do it for ds2 because he woke up when we did it and never slept longer as a result of doing it. We try to burp him after night feeds because he is a very gassy baby as well. I would try the df and try it without burping her and see what happens and go from there. If she stays asleep during the feed, my guess is that she probably won't take in so much air and you can put her right back down.

[fluvly]

Thank you Nicole, I'll try not burping her tonight and see what happens!

[fluvly]

Hello again!

Unfortunately the dreamfeed didn't work, she woke up even earlier than without it. 
Normally she would wake up at about 1.30 without the dreamfeed, but last night she woke up at 1.
I picked her up at 22:20 for the dreamfeed, she stayed asleep but was still swallowing a lot of air. She stayed on the breast for 10 minutes.

Should I have tried to keep her longer on the breast? Should I have offered the other breast?
At 1 she woke up passing gas, which may be a result of me not burping her after the dreamfeed. Should I have burped her?

I really hoped it would work!

[<Catherine>]

We tried a DF and it wasn't successful for us, DS was a bit younger though. I had a thread on it so there may be some useful info there for you Cluster feeding, dream feeding, and 'routine'. (the first page has some dream feeding info)

[fluvly]

Very useful post, thank you Catherine.
I think I'll just let her wake up naturally tonight, especially as I HAD to stay awake myself until 10 to give the dreamfeed - normally 9 was my bedtime!

[Eva's Mummy]

We always DF but it took a week for her to settle into it. The first few days she still woke up when she usually did around 1:30 but as she got used to the DF she would always stay asleep but actually open her mouth to be fed as soon as i lifted her and then by 8 weeks she was sleeping from 6 - 6 with a 10pm DF.

So it may be worth persevering if you fancy a full nights sleep, however i have heard that it doesn't work for every baby x

[fluvly]

I thought about persevering with it, but last night she woke up with painful gas, and I think it might be due to me not burping her after the dreamfeed. She stayed asleep during the dreamfeed but was still swallowing a lot of air.

Out of curiousity, how long does a dreamfeed last on average for you?

[Eva's Mummy]

AS in the length of time it took her to feed. She was about 15-20mins for a DF honey x