Dream feeds not working?

[sairama]

We have tried the dream feed for our 6 week old and it does not seem to work. Our son goes down after our night routine at 10pm and wakes up hungry with or without the dream feed anywhere from 1:30am to 2:30am.

He is eating a lot during the day (we estimate 30+ ounces). My supply is very abundant and we know he is on an aggressive growth track as he puts on approximately 1 lb a week. He was born early (37 weeks, 5 days) and came hom 6 lbs and is now close to 11 lbs.

We do our dream feed at 11:30pm.

Any advice? Answers to relevant questiosn below. Thank you!!



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How old is your child? 6 weeks
What’s his/her daily routine? EASY as much as possible
What’s nap routine? After activity
How long are naps? 30 minutes - 1 hour
What's bedtime routine? Time? Nurse-bath-massage-nurse-song-sleep
Do you bottle or breastfed?? Breastfeed
How much? or how long? Big eater -- up to 12x just during the day for 30 minutes each time
If breastfed.. one side or both?? (at each feed) One sided
How many wakes per night? 1-2
What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up? Subdued -- feed/change and might fuss
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry? Hunger cry

[hatshetsut]

I don't think that the problem is with the dream feeds. He is a very aggressively growing boy who just needs more calories. A couple of questions for you...

1. Does he wake up at the exact same time every night, or does it range? If it is pretty close to the exact same time it may be a habitual waking. If it ranges it is hunger.

2. Does he take a full feed during the night? If it is yes, he needs the calories.

3. Do you give him a pacifier or dummy? If you give the passi, does he go back to sleep or does he start crying again? If he goes back to sleep, it is probably habitual waking. If he cries again he just needs more food.

Finally, at six weeks going for 5-6 hours without food is normal. It would be highly unusual for a baby to be able to make it from 10pm to 6-7am without a feed.  It does get better. I like to think of the first three months as "The Haze". After my DD started sleeping through the night from 10-7 (@ about 3 months) it seemed like a whole new world. Hang in there!

[sairama]

Thank you so much for the reply and the great advice!


Answers to your questions:

1. Does he wake up at the exact same time every night, or does it range? If it is pretty close to the exact same time it may be a habitual waking. If it ranges it is hunger.
**The time varies anywhere from 1:30 AM to 2:30 AM depending on when he is put down. If it is 9ish, it will be closer to 1:30, and if 10ish, then closer to 2:30**

2. Does he take a full feed during the night? If it is yes, he needs the calories.
**Yes, a very full feed. My breasts are very full and in 15 minutes he has made at least one very soft**

3. Do you give him a pacifier or dummy? If you give the passi, does he go back to sleep or does he start crying again? If he goes back to sleep, it is probably habitual waking. If he cries again he just needs more food.
** He hates pacifiers in general. If I give him one, he will cry and start the hunger cry.**

We know he can't make it completely through the night. But, we were hoping if we give him a dream feed at 11:30/12, we could get him to go through until 4 or 5am. At this point, after being put down at 9/10, he wakes up at 1:30/2:30, 4:30/5:30 and then 6:30/7 at which point we start the day. Should we try a bigger feed at midnight?

Thank you so much.

[etmom]

My ds is currently almost 6 mos and the df never worked for him.  It worked wonders on my first baby, but not him.  I tried at about 6-8 weeks and again around 3 months.  He would do the same thing that you described only his next wake-up time was between 2-4am either way.  So I just skipped it.  Some nights that I tried it he woke even more so I figured it was really interrupting his sleep more than helping.    As I said, it worked wonders on my ds1 and I loved it----going to bed and not getting up again until 7/7:30!  But each LO is so different!

[hatshetsut]

You could always try not giving the DF and see what happens, or you could try giving one really late like at midnight. In Tracy's book she recommended not DF after 11:00 because it disturbs their night time sleep, but if his sleep is already goofy, you might try it and see what happens. What is the worst that could happen, he would wake up at 2:00am? He does that anyway!

If you are going to play with the schedule, my recommendation would be to not make too many changes at once. Try one change, and give it 3-5 days before you decide if it has worked or not. You don't want to throw too many curve balls at the little guy, that is a sure fire way to really have a cranky baby on your hands!

[sairama]

He wakes up with or without the dream feed at 1.30 or 2 am.

Thanks for writing back!

[hatshetsut]

Try a really late DF, 11:30-12:00 and see what happens. If he wakes at 1:30-2:00 it is habitual and you might want to try wake 2 sleep.

[Fenella]

in tracy's book she suggests the df no later than   11pm.   your baby seems to have a very late bedtime.  You really want to be aiming for bedtime around 8pm with a df around 10.45 so it doesn't interupt the night hours.   so really the most you can expect is sleep between 7pm give df at 10.45 and sleep for another 3/4 hours from there.  Which would probably mean only 1 night waking.

[sairama]

If we put him to bed at 8, he is ready to start the day at pre 5am. We will eventually target an earlier bedtime (we get earlier every week) as he approaches the 2 month mark. Do you think if we put him down at 8 AND dream feed, he can make it longer?

The dream feed seemed to give us only 1 night waking last night. We put him down around 9pm. We gave him a feed at 11:30pm and it put him through to almost 3 am, and then after a quick feed and change, he went until 6:30am. If we didn't dream feed, it would have been 1:30-ish for a wake up.

Which one do you recommend?

Thank you!

[hatshetsut]

Probably a combo of both. Keep the DF and put him down earlier at 8. Try to feed him before sleep, but not feed him to sleep (I hope that is clear). You will probably see him start to wake later and later in the night until he is waking at 5:30-6 on his own.

Remember, each baby is different. Some are textbook, some not. Some sleep through the night sooner than others. You may just have a little guy who needs more calories right now. Stinks for you at the moment, but it does get better!

[Fenella]

last night   sounds as good as you can expect at such a young age.