changing his body clock

[Zo75]

Hi there, my 9 week old has just started to go down at 8pm which is great as we now get some evening time to ourselves.  Unfortunately what this means is he thinks that this is the start of his long night sleep (which was about 5 hrs long from 11pm - 4am till he woke for his 1st night feed). 

We try to wake him for a dream feed at 11pm but he is in such a deep sleep he only takes about 3 Oz before passing out again.  Despite having a full tummy he then wakes at 1.30am then again at 3.30am then 6am.  Horrendous!

Does anyone have any idea how I can make him understand that his sleep from 8pm - 11pm is just another nap and he need to have his big long sleep from 11pm - 4am as before??

Zo

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi Zo

It is very common that a baby will naturally fall into a routine where their long stretch of sleep starts around 7 or 8pm and they then wake through the morning.

In order to try and postpone that long stretch to later in the night, Tracy recommends offering the dreamfeed, as you are trying.  It often takes a week or so for the LO to get the hang of feeding during the dreamfeed, and then having the long stretch of sleep after that.  If that is your goal then I would encourage you to perservere with the dreamfeed for a little while and see how it goes.

Good luck
Jo