Difficult Dreamfeed

[lawylie]

I have a nine week old infant. I started with EASY just over 2 weeks ago. He seems to have adapted pretty well to it. For a little history, my LO has reflux and severe food allergies. At around 7 weeks old he started sleeping from 7ish to somewhere between 2 to 3 am and then again to 6 to 7 am. Once I read the BW book, I started dreamfeeding about 10 days ago. I usually dreamfeed around 4 hrs after bedtime feeding somewhere between 10:30 and 11pm. The problem seems to be that he is so asleep when I go in to feed him that he will only suck for around 6 min and then becomes so slack that he falls off the breast. I have tried gently arousing him with all suggested methods without much success. I really do not want to wake him anymore than I have to. Sometimes I will switch sides and he will suck again for a few minutes. I have also tried going back a forth between breasts a few times to get a few more ounces in but no success. I was hoping that the 2/3 am feeding would move a little later or closer to 6 am. I realize he is still very young and still needs a feeding at night. However, since he was going 7 to 8 hrs between his bedtime feeding and first wake-up with only one feeding at night. I feel that I just added a feeding without much change in the sleeping pattern. So my questions are: Do I keep dreamfeeding and what should I expect as this becomes more established? What should I do to make the dreamfeeding more successful? or should I go back to no dreamfeeding with on feeding at 2/3am?

I am just exhausted and need a little more sleep. Any suggestions very much appreciated.
Thanks
Laura

[Erin M]

I would try maybe even earlier, like 10:15 or so -- we usually advise people to change the time they're offering it by about 15 minutes in order to catch their LOs in a different (hopefully lighter) cycle of sleep.  Sometimes that's all you need to do in order to get them going. 

I notice you said he has reflux -- sometimes the df is hard with reflux babies -- do you hold him upright after his regular feeds (as you'd need to do this with the df as well usually). 

And if it doesn't work, that's ok, it doesn't work for every baby.  Some moms just prefer to go to bed earlier and let their LOs wake when they need to. 

[lawylie]

I will try it a little earlier tonight. I was doing that in the begging but we were having a hard time getting him to take the feeding that I moved it a little later to see if he was more hungry. Yes, I do try and hold him upright after feeding and during feeding I place him a more upright position. If he does take to the dreamfeeding should his 2/3am wake-up move forward or would you expect that it would remain for awhile?
Thanks
Laura

[Fiver]

At 9w you've got a good number of growth spurts in the next few weeks.  If you get a fairly regular NF time going now, you may find that it changes again in the next 2-4 weeks anyway.  We never did a DF, but I understand consistency is key, so give it a good go before you decide to try without