cluster feeding/dream feed

[mena]

Again, please feel free to move this to wherever it might belong... I just don't know where to post, if here or on the EASY forum 

DD is 3 weeks old and I've been cluster feeding her at night, which has worked wonders (she sleeps like an angel so far), but I've found it REALLY difficult to wake her up for the 11-12pm feed or to keep her interested in food after only 2 hours of her last feed. The result is that in the last feed she'll only stay at the breast for 5 or 10 mins max. What do I do? Do I continue to cluster feed such a small baby (at birth she weighed 6.8 lbs, 3120 grs and now she weighs 3600 grs, 7.9 lbs) even if she isn't interested enough??

Thank you!

[KMET]

Hi there, I don't have the answer to your question as I am a new mom, but have a 4 week old and was wondering similar things about the dreamfeed and cluster feeding. As well, my question is about cluster feeding prior to the dreamfeed - sometimes it takes almost an hour to get my ds to sleep after his 4pm feed, so it is almost 6pm when he finally falls asleep, should I wake him after only 15-30 minutes of sleep to get him to feed again? I am not sure that he would be interested in feeding again so soon. What to do? 

[sophiems]

Hi there, I don't have the answer to your question as I am a new mom, but have a 4 week old and was wondering similar things about the dreamfeed and cluster feeding. As well, my question is about cluster feeding prior to the dreamfeed - sometimes it takes almost an hour to get my ds to sleep after his 4pm feed, so it is almost 6pm when he finally falls asleep, should I wake him after only 15-30 minutes of sleep to get him to feed again? I am not sure that he would be interested in feeding again so soon. What to do? 

I could have written your post! 

I'm also having a hard time knowing how much effort i should put into waking for a dream feed. 

So, Jimena, what times do you feed in the evening. 

If it helps, here's what I do...and it seems to work, but every 3-4 nights I can't seem to get Caeden awake enough for the 8:30 feed.

During the day every 3 hours until 4pm.  Then E at 6, bath and bed by 7ish (watching his cues so sometimes earlier, sometimes later).  Then E again at 8:30.  If all is well, he's been asleep for awhile by then, but sometimes he's still fussing until 7:45 or so.  I feed anyway as much as he'll take.  Then I do DF at 10:30pm or 11pm, depending on when I need to crash.  There have been a few nights where he's woken up around 10:30, but it doesn't seem to disrupt him too much.  He really wakes a lot for the DF, always has a big poo, needs to burp, etc., so I don't know how much of a DF it is...

Then nighttime, he's usually awake at 2 and 5 or somewhere around those times.  I feed him at both.   

[KMET]

Hi there, I find it interesting that so many people are going through almost exactly the same thing. Thanks for giving an example of your routine - I think that I will try the cluster feeding as the nights that my ds has been OT and we have done cluster feeding without planning, but just to settle him, he has slept from 10pm until around 2am. I have to admit, however, that I feel that I will be either feeding or soothing from 4pm until 10pm, which seems like a long evening! I am having trouble with him falling asleep while nursing despite me really trying to rouse him, so I will see how this whole thing works.

[mena]

Thank you, Sophie!

KMET, for rousing your DS, have you tried burping him in the middle of the feed, or just changing his nappy just to wake him up? I sometimes do that and it works at times. .... Sorry I have no more feedback!

Ok, our routine is feed every 3 hours. In theory, I'd start at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 9pm and 11pm. Then, she'd sleep till 5am or if I'm really lucky, till 6 or 7am. BUT since she doesn't feed too well at 9 and 11pm, she wakes up either at 4, 5 or 6am and then she goes straight to sleep till 8 or 9am.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Problem is, since she wakes up much later than 7am, I have to adjust the feeds according to the time she got up, and usually ends up with 1 feed less than planned, and hence she wakes up to eat in the middle of the night. Right now, for example, I fed her at 7pm and just now at 9pm, but she fell asleep after 10 mins max and I just let her be. I'll have to wake her up for the 11pm feed and if I'm lucky she'll eat for another 10 mins and then she'll be hungry at 4am again.....

What to do? Continue like that and hope that she'll stop waking up in the middle of the night as she grows older or force the cluster feeding?

Thanks!