2 month old dream feed but still wakes up

[Popi18]

Hi, my son is 10 weeks old. He has been on EASY, since day one ( in the sense of eat-activity-sleep) and on a 4 hour schedule, (his doing, not mine) I tried once for a few days to change to a 3 hr schedule but it was crazy and I didint want to start a 3 just to end up having to later change to a 4 specially since he is the one that wants to eat every 4 (only during a growth spurt a few weeks ago he started to eat on a 3 hr schedule but changed right back when it was over)

He was starting to get really fussy when it came time to sleep, specially naps. And since he was weighing +13 pounds at the time, last week we decided to start with up/pd -shh pat method. Needless to say the first nap was horrible. He cried an hour and a half just to sleep for 10 minutes, but I have to say that it has pregressively gone better and at a weeks in sometimes he will even go down by himself or with just 5 minutes of shh pat. He actually now gets fussy and cries if we don't react right away to his sleepy cues.

At the same time we started with te dream feed. I usually breastfeed but one night I wanted to make sure how many oz he was taking and also have my husband help, so I gave him a bottle. He only fed 3 oz and that took us 1hr of stimulating and moving him a bit to see if he would take more. Next night I tried the breast and so on unill tonight. I had expressed right after a feed and It was mostly hind milk ( you could see it was really concentrated) so I figured it would be good to feed him this at the dream feed so it would hold him up all night. Again he only took 3 oz when his normal feed is 6 to 6.5.

All week he has had the dream feed but will stil get fussy around 1.30 2.00 am and go back to sleep, in the begining we would have to come in right away because he would cry, now he goes to sleep on his own until 4.00 when he just cries. We thought it had to do with the fact he had not popped well a few days but today he had 2 big poops, had the dream feed and sill woke up. I decide to try feeding him in case I'm not reading his cues right and it's hunger, since it's not the poop... But he only took the breast for a few minutes.

So now I have no idea why he is waking up. I'm not sure if I should move the dreamfeed to later so that he eats more and maybe won't get up, but everything I've read says not past 11... I started 10.30 and now I'm at 11.15 and it's still the same...

He is usually a very good baby I just want to get him on schedule before I go back to work in 2 weeks. Since without it I'm never sure what his awake time is going to be if I let him run the night feeding as he likes and not on a strict time.

And for some reason sometimes his naps are cut short, I'm trying to make activity time peacefull but honestly we are not doing much so I don't know why he gets overtired....

Any help is much appreciated!!!

[amayzie]

Hi Hon- Unfortunately the dream feed is not for everyone and every baby! It sounds like you have given it a pretty good go- it can be tricky to start! For some bubba's they still wake up at the same times they always had, or other people find it unsettles them more! The dream feed is really just a tool for you to move that 1.30/2pm feed forward to before you go to bed- if they are waking up then anyway and needing something then you are better to head to bed a little earlier yourself and just feed them when they wake up...

[Popi18]

Hey.

So I followed what you said and kept feeding him at around 3.00 4.00 when he would wake up. A few weeks in I figured he didint need the feed but every time I tried taking it away he would just wake up an hour later wanting to feed. For a week and a half my husband tried it, since I thought it was because I smelled of milk that he would refuse to go back to sleep without feeding. But that was a total failure too.

He is now 5 months and since about a month now I have had to put him on formula, at the begining just one feed but by now it's mostly all of them. And still he wakes up. I've tried upping the oz, 6 at every feed but still he wakes up.

His schedule is the 4 hr easy with the dream feed (he wakes up and wants it at 11). He usually naps really well and 90% of the time he goes down on his own not even shh/pat needed.

I really need help getting him to stop, I really believe he doesn't need it but cries hysterically when we take it away. Today I was able to feed him 4 oz instead of 6 at 4 am. But usually he will fuss until I give him a full 6 oz, sometimes even more.

I really want to break this habit specially before starting solids, and that's just around the corner..

Thank you!

[Skadiver13]

Hi hun, why at 5 months do you think he doesn't need a feed?