Worse sleep with dreamfeed?

[FifisMom]

Hello everybody,

My LD who is exclusively BF is 11 weeks old and I have introduced the dreamfeed around 1 week ago. First 2 nights she slept through until 6 am, I gave her a paci and she slept till 7. Since the third night she started waking up, always at different times. And every night her wakings are increasing, so tonight she woke up at around 3, and then every hour, so at 4, 5, 6, 6.30, 6.40 and then slept till 7.30 when its time to get up.
Usually if I go in and give her a paci she falls back asleep. Tonight I thought that she must be hungry as she is waking up that much, so I fed her at her 4 am waking and she ate well (seemed to be indeed hungry) and then still woke up every hour.

Before the dreamfeed she used to sleep a good stretch of 7-8 hours, have a feed around 4 am and then sleep until 7 am (sometimes waking up at 6, but going back down with a paci). So I see a definite regression. Can this be due to dreamfeed? Is it perhaps due to the fact that she usually wakes us during the dreamfeed? Should I stop it and just go back to night feeding?

She does manage to get through the night without food, with the dreamfeed, and she did first 2 nights, so this is very confusing...

[Erin M]

Hi there!  That is such a sweet picture of your DD! 

To answer your question, the df can definitely disrupt sleep for some babies.  It could also be that she's hitting a growth spurt (there's one around 12 weeks) although your wakings are a little too frequent for that I think.  Are your burping her well after the dream feed?  I'd also wonder about discomfort with wakings that frequent -- perhaps from taking in too much air at one of those feeds.  I know that Tracy says that babies don't need to be burped after the dream feed in the books, but mine have definitely needed a burp after that feed in order to sleep settled.  Are you breast or bottle feeding?

[Marie-O]

Hello! I'm bumping in since I have the exact same problem!! My DD is 4months and since I introduced the DF (e weeks ago) she has constant NW. I nurse her and she goes back to sleep in a second so she's not really hungry.
If I let her alone in her crib she will mantra cry for a very long time and then becomes a real cry so I go get her.
I don't know what else to do. Before she used to do longer streches...so maybe DF is not good for her?

I'll stay tuned for more suggestions.
Thanks

[Skadiver13]

Just a bdtd, my lo never took to the DF as some babies dont. We gave it till 4 months then stopped. He'd sleep great, then after the DF he'd sleep very fitfully, even after burping, as if the DF disrupted his sleep cycle. You can try doing it 30min earlier or later if you want. My lo ended up starting to wake @ the time of the DF expecting it so we just stopped and he would wake around 3 for a feed then back to sleep. We weaned that feed around 9 months. Some wean earlier some later. HTH

[violagal]

Same here - we tried the df several times as it made sense as my dh would do it leaving me some sleep time but our DS would basically treat it like an extra feed and still wake sometimes 2/3hours later! Once we dropped it at 4 months we would leave him to wake naturally and it stretched by itself from 11pm - 2.30am in a couple of weeks and then we only had the one night feed which meant we could all go to bed early! He definitely had his best sleep first part of the night so from 7-2/3 so we went with it

[Marie-O]

Yes actually my DD wakes up at 10pm just before the DF...so how do I stop it know that she expects it??

[Erin M]

how do I stop it know that she expects it

Just pat/shh or pu/pd, however you would settle at a waking where you weren't going to feed.

[FifisMom]

Erin, thanks, she is a sweetie 

So last night we didnt do the DF and my LD slept from 8.30 pm (last feed at 6.45 pm) until 3.45 am, I fed her then, and she slept until 6.30 am when its around her WU time. She still woke up at 5, at which moment I gave her a paci and told her that it was still too early, she slept until 6 (I repeated the same), and then she was up for good at 6.30. I still see it as an improvement as at least we were able to go to sleep earlier and overall there were less wakings.
I think we are just going to drop the DF, she still didnt get used to it so she doesnt wake up for it... And she also does her longer stretch first, so  I dont really want to mess with that...

We also had an appointment with a pediatrist yesterday and she said that normally DD should be able to sleep from 8pm until 6am already with no food, which honestly seems a bit early to me (she is 11.5 weeks old, weighing 5.2kg). She said to go to her if she wakes, explain that its too early and she has to go back to sleep, to give a paci, but not to feed or not to pick her up. And eventually to let her cry up to 10 minutes before going in again if she doesnt settle. I am not sure whether this is the best way to be honest. I do think that I will add another 'top-off' feed around 8pm to allow her to last a bit longer during the night, but if she wakes up hungry, I will feed her... it seems just a little too harsh for me to go cold turkey on the night feeds for such a young baby.

[FifisMom]

Yes actually my DD wakes up at 10pm just before the DF...so how do I stop it know that she expects it??

I guess you could also try to move it 15 minutes earlier every 3 days until it is at the same time as your last feed of the day (or until your DD doesnt take it anymore)

[FifisMom]

Hi there!  That is such a sweet picture of your DD! 

To answer your question, the df can definitely disrupt sleep for some babies.  It could also be that she's hitting a growth spurt (there's one around 12 weeks) although your wakings are a little too frequent for that I think.  Are your burping her well after the dream feed?  I'd also wonder about discomfort with wakings that frequent -- perhaps from taking in too much air at one of those feeds.  I know that Tracy says that babies don't need to be burped after the dream feed in the books, but mine have definitely needed a burp after that feed in order to sleep settled.  Are you breast or bottle feeding?

Yes I used to burp her very gently after the DF (she wakes up anyway, so I prefer to burp her as I know that usually she swallows  a lot of air during feeds), although sometimes no burp comes out and I am reluctant to really insist, not to wake her completely. It could be indeed that she has too much air... I give her breast, we havent started the bottle yet. It is on my to do list for this weekend to test out that breast pump I bought ;-)

[Erin M]

So last night we didnt do the DF and my LD slept from 8.30 pm (last feed at 6.45 pm) until 3.45 am, I fed her then, and she slept until 6.30 am when its around her WU time. She still woke up at 5, at which moment I gave her a paci and told her that it was still too early, she slept until 6 (I repeated the same), and then she was up for good at 6.30.

This sounds like a wonderful night for an 11 week old! The early AM hours are a time of really light sleep for LOs, it's not unusual for them to wake at the time with noises, changes in light, etc.

We also had an appointment with a pediatrist yesterday and she said that normally DD should be able to sleep from 8pm until 6am already with no food, which honestly seems a bit early to me (she is 11.5 weeks old, weighing 5.2kg). She said to go to her if she wakes, explain that its too early and she has to go back to sleep, to give a paci, but not to feed or not to pick her up. And eventually to let her cry up to 10 minutes before going in again if she doesnt settle. I am not sure whether this is the best way to be honest. I do think that I will add another 'top-off' feed around 8pm to allow her to last a bit longer during the night, but if she wakes up hungry, I will feed her... it seems just a little too harsh for me to go cold turkey on the night feeds for such a young baby.

I am 100% with you on this one.  Most of what I've read (and advice from doctors, etc here in the US) is that night feeds are totally normal at her age.  Her tummy is still so very tiny and can't hold enough to get her through the whole night.  It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job!  Some babies really don't sleep as well with the dream feed, I'd just keep doing as you're doing without. 

[FifisMom]

Erin,
Thanks a lot for your response. We are dropping the DF for good. Last night LD slept from 8.30 until 1 am (at which time she pooped and woke up), I also fed her and she slept until 7.15 am this morning, waking up only once at 5.45 at which moment I gave her a paci and she fell asleep immediately. A pretty good night in my book :-) I do think that DF was messing with her sleep cycles and is just not the best solution for her yet. I guess that this is indeed  not a "one size fits all" solution.

And we can wait a bit for her to start sleeping through the night on her own. She seems to be a pretty good sleeper when it concerns night sleep (a different story for the naps though ;-) ) so I think she should sleep through the night on her own in a month or so. Until then it doesnt bother me too much to get up once a night to feed her.

Thanks a lot for all your comments!!!
Sophia and her mommy

[Erin M]

Great!