9 week old Twins feeding in the night

[Epps3639]

Hello!
I am mum to Mia who was 5 yesterday and in school and Tate and Joel my 9 week old twin boys. They were 8lb 3 and 7 lb at birth and have just weighed in at 12 lb 9 and 11 lb respectively.
They have always slept and ate very well and have no props to get to sleep they go to bed awake.
Their routine at the moment is 4 hrky feeding starting between 6 and 7 am they have a top up at 430 to see them thru til their last bottle at 6pm.  They are offered 6 oz per feed and will have between 3 and 6 oz at each feed.
At 6 weeks they were feeding at 6 and sleeping til 12-2 am where they would have another 6 oz bottle and then Tate wakes at 4/5 am every morning. I stated offering food as I thought he was hungry but he wasn't bothered so I assumed it was habitual waking.  Joel doesn't wake up but Tate is a real screamer and can't settle himself so I have him in bed with me simply to get some sleep and to prevent Joel from being woken up.
To try and get them to eat later than 12/2 am we started a dream feed at 10/1030 pm where we don't wake the up and they will have 2/3 oz each at this feed but it has not pushed their night time bottle back at all.  I have been doing this dream feed for about a week.
Their nap times in the day are not consistent yet.  I have a school run to do at 830 and they normally stay awake until then unless we have been up at 6 when they will cat nap until we go and then the car and pushchair sends them off to sleep.  They will then sleep again at lunchtime for about 2/3 hrs and again for about an hour after their afternoon bottle on the afternoon school run again for about an hour but the it,Inge differ a little each day.
What I need to know is how to stop Tate waking at 4/5 am every morning as it is not for food and if it Is worth dropping the dream feed as it doesn't seem to be doing anything! I don't like having Tate in bed with me but I need the sleep! I know it has to stop. I do have the facility to move Tate in his mosesbasket into a spare room and can leave him to cry when he is old enough.
I do not want to feed them later than 6pm as this gave us 45 mins with my daughter before she goes to bed. If we feed the boys later we would not have time with her before she goes to bed

[katie80]

Hi and welcome to BW! . Congratulations on your twins!

I think if you've been doing the DF for a week and not seen any improvement in their NW, you don't have to keep it. It doesn't work for all babies. I do wonder though, if you could get them to take more at that feed if it would make a difference. 2-3oz doesn't seem like much for 9 week old babies.

I've never been a FF, so am not sure on this, but they do seem a bit young to be on 4hrly feeds. I guess as long as they are getting the oz they need, it's probably not an issue, but typically LOs don't move to a 4hr EASY til around 4mo. I don't know that this has anything to do with the NWs, but is just something that stuck out to me.

As for getting Tate to not wake, since you've ruled out hunger, I think you'll have to work on resettling him without bringing him into your bed (which I don't blame you for at all!). We don't condone any type of CIO at BW for babies of any age, as it can lead to undue stress on your baby and isn't often a permanent solution. Have you tried shh/patting (or some other similar method) him back to sleep? Do you think he is waking out of any discomfort from the 12/2 feed? Trapped gas or something similar?