dreamfeed/how long to try it/what to do w/ the 2 am waking

[sav]

My husband and I started trying a dreamfeed two nights ago for our 12 week old.  He has been breastfed up until this week, when we introduced formula in preparation of me going back to work.  He is now 1/2 formula, 1/2 breastfed.
He is on EASY since birth, up until a couple of days ago schedule was wake up at 830 am, then 3 hr EASY through the day w/ 1 1/2 hr naps, catnap between the 530 pm feed and 830 pm bedtime.  His night wakings were then very erratic, usually up at 230 and 530, but was occasionally going until 4 am, once went through to 5 am.

The past two nights we moved his bedtime up to 730 pm and did a dreamfeed at 10:30/11.  He took a full 4-5 oz, but then still woke at 230 both nights, I breastfed him because I wasn't sure if he was hungry or not and he took a very mini partial feed and then went right back to sleep until 730 am.

Obviously it has been a short time (2 days!) but we are more tired with this new dreamfeed plan than we were before when we were getting at least 5 and sometimes up to 7 or even 8 hrs of sleep. 

How long to 'stick with it' before you saw results?
What should we do with our guy at 2 am if it appears he is not hungry?
thanks in advance.

[Kimberly®]

Sounds like your on the right track.
Keep with the dreamfeed for a while to give your LO a chance to adjust to it. if after a month its still makeing no difference then I would relook at it.
For now if your LO wakes at 2am and isn't hungry try intorducing pat/shus and see if that will settle him. A soother may help aswell jsut don't use that to often as it will become a prop. After a couple nights he should stop waking up.
However. Don't be suprised if he doesn't sleep 12 hours yet. Its normal for a baby of his age to wake at least once a night. He may move his feeding later, or he may even drop it completly and sleep through.

Good luck and please let us know how it goes.

[lilieng]

I am having the same issue!  The first night I tried it, I managed to breastfeed without waking her and she slept right through the night.  Ever since then (well, about 3-4 times), she wakes up a bit, nurses and goes back to sleep... then wakes up every three to four hours - wanting to nurse more often than she does during the day (whereas before she woke up once or twice)... and her diaper is very full by about 3am so she wakes up as well.

Any other thoughts on dreamfeeding?  Is it just a matter of getting her used to it? 

[Kimberly®]

It is a matter of getting used to it yes, however, if you find your LO is waking more with it then without it, or needs changing in the middle of the night when they didn't used to, then its time to drop the dreamfeed.
With my LO for example we've been dreamfeeding her since she was about 7 weeks old, she's now 5 months old and she started waking in the middle of the night for a change, so we dropped the feed and she's sleeping right through again.

Its a matter of finding whats right for you and your LO.

[lilieng]

Thanks!  I tried to drop the dream feed because she woke every three hours or so with wet diaper and hungry (though I have never known her to refuse to eat).  However, she now wakes up for the dreamfeed and our life has turned into a living nightmare because it takes close to an hour to get her back to sleep if she is not nursed.  We were on a great path - she was making great progress and now we are in hell.

Help.

Do I continue to nurse her on demand and hope that she will 'get it' again (she was approaching 8 hours of sleep before i introduced the dream feed) or do I not nurse her and get no sleep... i have to get this sorted because I am falling apart... it's very disappointing after we were at least going in the right direction.  Now that she gets less sleep during the night she is less willing to nap during the day.  It is 3pm and I have already spent three hours trying to get her to sleep ... and she has slept 30 minutes... this is worse than when I introduced pu / pd and the baby whisperer approach.

Any suggestions for anything related to this issue would be helpful.

Lili

[Kimberly®]

YIKES!! so sorry this has happend to you {{HUGS}}
It sounds like you may have to reinstate that dreamfeed, but earlier, if you know what I mean. Its possable your LO has hit a growth Spurt.
 How old is your LO??
Could you send me your routine and I'll see if maybe I can help you out more based on that.