dream feed or not?? eating and sleeping question

[cosmicangel007]

this is sort of an eat/sleep question so not sure where to post it.

DD is 14 weeks and 9 pounds 12 oz's
we are fairly good at doing the e.a.s.y routine
6 or 7 bottles of BM in 24 hours with 3.5oz each bottle which she finishes in about 20-25 minutes

the last few weeks i've been doing a 'dream feed' anywhere between 10-11:30 depending on when i am ready for bed and/or if i see her fussing before hand)
she takes the 3.5 oz no problem then goes back to sleep easily.
wakes anywhere between 1:30am-3:00am (about 3.5 hour sleep) and again at 5:30 or 6:00 (only 2-2.5 hours sleep) and is up for the day at that time.
she is up for about 1hr + before her next sleep


SO MY QUESTION. should i continue the dream feed if its not providing more time between night feeds like its intended to do?
I do see a pattern at night and i know that with DS it took a while to rid that night habit so don't want to fall into the same pattern here with DD.

During the day we can go anywhere from 3 hours to 4 hours between feeds but night seems like its shorter.

Dr. has advised us to drop the dream feed and try and sooth her back to sleep when she first wakes before her next bottle to help drop that one off. but I was speaking with someone and they said that until LO is 13 pounds that the night feeds should continue no matter what.  do you think that is true?

any help here is gratefully needed
from a tired mom and dad with a 19 month old DS to care for also

[Buttonbobs]

To be honest at this age I would think that yes NFs are very normal. I personally wouldn't be cutting out the DF unless by adding it in you were increasing the number of feeds at night - was she having only one before? It sounds like the feeds are being taken in full so possibly try adding another oz to all her feeds in the day and see if she needs less at night automatically as she'll be more full. It would be usual for feed sizes to increase with age and if she is draining bottles this is always a sign that an LO is ready for more.

What abor starting which a rule that you don't feed at night more often than you do in the day (so no sooner than 3.4/4 hours after the previous feed, and any wakings before that you settle for.

Is she always awake for the "dream feed"?

[cosmicangel007]

She is a sleep during the DF.
In regards to adding more oz per bottle,  I thought with BM you didn't need to increase like formula feedings. Is that not the case?
With that, I've recently added about .5oz.

I've also been attempting to feed more during the day but it means waking her during naps.
Her routine is as such
If she wakes and isn't hungry right away
She wakes and about 20-30 min later she'll eat
Takes about 20-30 min
Plays for 1-2.5 hours depending on what we are doing
Sleeps

In the later afternoon she could go 4-6 hours between feeds if i let her but recently I don't and feed her sooner. Meaning I wake her from a nap.
At night 12am-6:30 I'm lucky if she does stretches of 2.5-3 hours between feeds

Why is her night wakings so close together and how to I stretch them out like her days?  It seems like her being occupied during the day keeps her from eating. Is the only thing to do is add oz's to the already bottles and go from there?
Do I continue to wake her from naps to feed her during the day?
Thanks

[Lolly]

In regards to adding more oz per bottle,  I thought with BM you didn't need to increase like formula feedings. Is that not the case?
With that, I've recently added about .5oz.

You do need to increase her bottles, even with breastmilk in the bottle. If she was at the breast she would be naturally increasing the amount she takes, or will take some bigger feeds and some smaller. With a bottle she isn't able to do this is the same way so you need to offer slightly more than you think she will take so that she can stop because she is full up and not just because the bottle is empty. 3.5/4oz is a small feed for her age, I would be expecting her to be taking at least 5oz a feed by now really, more if it was formula. The advice from health people in the UK is to increase bottles by 1oz when they are draining the majority of their bottles.

If you increase the bottles in the day you should fine she can go longer at night. I would increase the bottles rather than feed more often.

Laura

[Buttonbobs]

Plays for 1-2.5 hours depending on what we are doing

Just another thought - your routine could perhaps benefit from a little tweaking. You could alway pop over to the EASY thread posting your day in EAS format and we can take a look at it over there for you.