Dream feed...Wake-to-Sleep...Morning Feed...HELP!! :)

[sofiasmommy]

Hello All!

I am new to this site and the whole mommy gig! My dd is 7 weeks old today! We started EASY last Friday...the steps of it and the routine are woking well, however, we are still having problems with our naps. I did stumble across a board dedicated to napping problems for under 3 months and it was great. I will keep trying!

My biggest worry is this, before we started EASY my dd was AWFUL at daytime sleeping (so in that aspect we are much better now), but she had been sleeping 9pm-3/4am religiously for about 3 weeks. Now we switched to some of the BW strategies.....in bed by 8, dreamfeed at 10:30. The first night we did it was 2 nights ago. She woke at 3 am and was unconsolable, so I gave in and fed her, like I always do. However, I read that since she is waking at the same time every night, she is not hungry. So last night we did the same thing, bed at 8, dreamfeed at 10:30 and I set my alarm to wake me at 2:30 to do the Wake-to-Sleep strategy. Well SHE woke at 2am and was miserable! She's never woken that early! So I picked her up, reswaddled, and did our whole bedtime routine again. An HOUR later she was finally asleep. ( I am assuming she wasn't hungry because she wasn't screaming like she does when she is hungry.) Then she woke around 4am, the usual time, but was in and out of sleep, I did not have to get up with her, but I had to keep putting the paci into her mouth everytime it fell out. Finally around 5 she went to sleep again. THEN she woke up at 6 and really wasn't going for ANY of our routine to get to sleep, so I gave in and fed her. She fell back asleep after eating and then she slept again until 8am. Am I doing anything wrong in this situation? I hate that she WAS sleeping so well at night and the past 2 nights have been torture!

LASTLY, sorry this is so long, She woke again at 8 and I was confused as to whether to start our day with a feed, only 2 hours since the last one, or was I supposed to wait until 9 (our 3 hour routine)? Her normal wake time has usually been 8.

THANK YOU SOOOO much in advance for your help!!! I love all these strategies, but feel I have a few glitches!

[Jaime]

hi!  welcome to the boards!

it takes a while for the dream feed to kick in and knock out that night waking, so it sounds like her body is trying to adjust to the new routine.  hence the 2am waking last night, need for paci and total confusion on her part. 

at 6am, she was very likely hungry - at 7 weeks old they do usually still need one feed at night. 

you could try feeding at 4am and then feed again at 8am, starting your day like normal.  or, if you end up not feeding till 6am, i would still probably start your day off with a feed at 8am.  JMHO.   

[sofiasmommy]

Hi Jaime!

Thank you for the reassurance! One more question! Do you think I should just let her keep waking for her 4am feed and worry about it being a 4am habit later down the road?

THANKS!!!! I love all these theories and I WANT them to work so badly, but there are fine tuning things that need to be done on my part and since I am a newbie....I appreciate all the help I can get!

[Jaime]

it sounds like you are very in tune to her cries and are very good at telling them apart.  if you hear a hungry cry, feed her, but if it's not, i'd keep using the paci like you did before.