3-4 week old, cant get to dreamfeed- any ideas?

[hkgirlo]

I LOVE the idea of dreamfeeding and I want to be able to do it. But everytime I have tried it doesn't work. Could she just be a sleepy baby who won't do it? She falls asleep during feeds sometimes 10 minutes in and will not continue no matter what I do, even when I think she is hungry (or should be anyways), so is a dreamfeed hopeless? From what I have read many babies will start sucking- but not her!! Anyone have this issue? What happened for you?

[cq000]

I think she's just too young right now If you are breastfeeding you'd be feeding every 3 hours throughout the night at this age anyway, so not much point of a DF; you can do a more proper dreamfeed when she's two or three months old. As she gets older she will be less sleepy and suck more efficiently. My DS was like that too and I just fed frequently when he was young because he fell asleep so much, and now he does the dreamfeed no problem.

[Fiver]

It may be also that you've caught her during the deeper sleep part of the sleep cycle.  If you tried about 15 minutes earlier/later, she might be in a lighter sleep and more receptive.

[shivi]

If you are bfeeding and have the bf established - over b weight, plenty of poopy and wet nappies a day etc etc - I would recommend intro'ing a bottle of ebm for the df. Even the sleepiest baby (like my DS who CANNOT wake up even these days once asleep) will suck much easier on a bottle teat.

I successfully fed both my kids from birth a DF (sometimes they would wake just before but by and large we were df'ing successfully by 2 weeks old) - one with a bottle from 2 weeks and one always off the breast.

And no, not all bf babies wake every three hours at night - and even if they do, if you intro the DF and use a bottle, your DH/DP if available could do the DF so that you could get 6 hrs sleep ish or even more.

Of course, I would only recommend these things if feeding is going well, baby is gaining nicely and you have no issues with supply.

HTH and hugs xxx

[Fiver]

Great advice from Shivi, as always

[hkgirlo]

Thanks everyone. Maybe she is too young, maybe it will go better in the future. I will introduce a bottle so that I can pump and have more freedom and maybe that will help with the DF- but I want to wait a bit longer before introducing it. I've just decided not to bother with the DF right now. She wakes an hour after that anyways for her regular feed. And the tanking up etc doesn't seem to get her to sleep longer right now anyways, for a while it did and sometimes does 3-4 hour cycles in the night but lately, maybe because of a growth spurt or something, its been 2-2.5 hours no matter what I do!

[shivi]

One other thing - if you are worried about nipple confusion/preference, all the evidence suggests that there is no chance of it happening if you are using only one bottle feed a day, particularly if baby is semi-comotose as in the DF for it anyway. Best bottle for keeping nipple confusion at bay is the Medela Calma.
I've helped an IRL friend recently intro the DF with her baby (2 mths at the time) with this bottle. Wish it had been around in my bfing days....

Here's a link - http://www.medela.com/UK/en/breastfeeding/products/breastmilk-feeding/calma-feeding-device.html

S x