Dream feed dramas!

[Dovely73]

We have been doing a dream feed right since the beginning with our 4 month old. At 7 weeks we started doing it with a bottle so my husband could help out. Over the last week or so he's started getting more and more fussy about it. Now he's outright refusing it. He screamed for an hour last night when my husband tried to do it. We really don't want to give up with the bottle as it makes life so much better if we can share the last feed of the night. He's breast fed for the rest of the time.

Around the same time as he started to get fussy I was starting to top up his expressed milk with some formula because there wasn't enough. I can only produce around 4 or 5oz for that last feed and he was taking around 6oz. In the last few days I've stopped expressing altogether and used only formula. Could this be making a difference. Maybe he just doesn't like the taste?

Around the same time as the fussiness started he also started waking up early for his dream feed at 10.15 whereas previously we'd always woken him from a deep sleep at about 10.45pm. I think it was originally a growth spurt that became a habit. At the same time he started waking a lot more in the night. Again, I think it was originally a growth spurt which became a habit. We seem to emerging from that now but the rejection of the bottle is a bit of problem.

Any thoughts?

Routine:
7.00am          Wake & feed
8.30am          Sleep
10.30am        Wake
11.00am        Feed
12.30pm        Sleep
3.00pm          Wake & Feed
4.45pm          Sleep
5.30pm          Wake
6.45pm          Feed
7.15pm          Sleep
10.45pm        Dream feed!

[Erin M]

It could definitely be the taste of the formula -- could also be that there's something in the formula that's upsetting his tummy (though doubtful at this stage as I assume you're not cutting anything out of your diet...)
Could also be something like teething -- any chance of that?  I know that my ds went through stages of waking before the dream feed -- I would just either feed him when he woke or push the dream feed a little earlier in order to get him still asleep.  Does he wake at night at all to eat? 

[Dovely73]

Yes, sadly he does still wake in the night! He was starting to go through but about the time he started rejecting the bottle he also started waking around 10.15pm and then at random times in the night. He has been teething but I think that's passed over now. No actual teeth yet. Also think he had a big growth spurt around the same time.

I've done a breast fed dream feed for the last two nights at 10.30 and he's gone through to 3.30am first night and 4.10am last night. That's it until morning. So that feels a bit more normal. I'm hoping it'll push back again to where we were 3 or 4 weeks ago when he was waking once at 5.30'ish and even sleeping through on occasion.

Any thoughts on how to reintroduce the bottle? I'm thinking of getting my husband to try it during the day when he's not too hungry and I'm out of the house.

[Erin M]

There are a ton of suggestions here that might help: Breastfed babies and bottles