Dreamfeed - How to...

[pittaor]

Paula,

Thank you I will try tomorrow night. I figure Friday is a good night, that way if she does wake up and is fussy and won't go down, then my husband can be home the next day to let me have a nap.

I will try the 10pm, I was worried she would wake up and then be fussy.
I will let you know. Rena

[Sungrl]

Hi there, 

My DD is 6 weeks old and I have been trying to get her to bed earlier.  She is on a 3 (sometimes 2.5) hour EASY routine and for the past 6 weeks she has followed this, but does not go down for the night until around 10pm or so (usually we start putting her to bed at 9:30 but it takes a half hour or more to get her to sleep).  I do her bedtime routine after her feed at 7:30pm and she normally would be sleeping around 8:00, but she always wakes at 9:30 or so to eat again (even though I feed her at 7:30pm).  Then it can take around 30 minutes to get her sleeping for the night.  I have been trying to move her bedtime to 8:30 or 9:00pm. 

Tonight I put her down to sleep around 8:00 and she had not woken at 9:30 like she normally does.  So, at 10pm decided to  try the dreamfeed.  DD has to take medication every night between 9 and 10:00pm so I give her a bottle of EBM with the medication mixed in.  After some probing, DD finally took the bottle of EBM and ate it up without waking.  I then laid her back down to sleep and about 5 minutes later her body started moving and within another 5 minutes she was wide awake and moving around a LOT.  She is very very active during they day when awake and naps are often restless.  She gets really active when overtired; arms flailing, legs bicycling, head back and forth.  So she woke after the dreamfeed really frantic like this and I changed her and swaddled her...but it took until 10:45pm to get her back to sleep.  It was almost like the milk made her hyper and agitated.  As a side note, the medication she takes MAY be contributing to her activeness and restlessness as it CAN have these kinds of side affects on infants... however, it is not the kind of thing that would affect her immediately after consuming it like that.

Any thoughts??
Shannon

[* Paula *]

Rena, just to let you know, it can take up to a week for the dreamfeed to be effective.  Good luck and keep us posted on how you are getting on. xx

Hi Shannon, firstly canyou post your routine so I can get a rough idea of how your day looks?  With regards to the dreamfeed, it can take up to a week for it to work and be effective. 

It definitely does sound like your lo is overtired and would definitely suggest a bed time of around 7:00 / 7:30.  Have you considered cluster feeding?  The 1st cluster feed would be after the 5pm cat nap, then bath, and then clusterfeed again after bath, and then in bed by 7 / 7:30.  Then you could try the dreamfeed and with your lo not being so overtired, it may be more effective.

Let me have a look at your routine, and can give you more info from there.

Paula x

[Sungrl]

Hi Paula,

Our day goes something like this.

Wake at 8-8:30am - Eat
I normally lay her on her back and sing/talk to her for a bit, and change her diaper - Activity
by around 9am she is showing signs of tiredness already so I put her back to bed - Sleep

She then will sleep until 11 or 11:30am - Eat
We then get dressed, play a bit and I put her in her Papasan chair (which she loves) - Activity
by around 12:30-1:00pm she will be ready for bed again - Sleep

Some days she will sleep good during this time and other days she will only nap for 45 minutes.  Some days we are also out around this time and she will sleep in the carseat.

So, sometime between 1:45 and 2:30 she will wake - Eat
Then we do tummy time or something like this (unless we are out) - Activity
3:30-4:00pm she will be ready for another nap - Sleep

Again, sometimes this nap goes well, other times she jerks awake after 30-45 mintues.  Often I will try to get her back down if she still seems tired/fussy when she wakes up.

5:00- 5:30 she will wake - Eat
She goes in the swing or Papasan or something while DH cooks and we eat dinner - Activity
6:00 or 6:30 or so she is tired again - Sleep

7:30 or so she will wake - Eat
We get into PJs, have a massage, sometimes a bath - Activity
8:00-8:30 back to bed - Sleep

She then generally wakes at 9:30 hungry again.  I have to give her medication at this time so I put it in a bottle of EBM.
She is normally fairly fussy after this feed so I try to just get her back to sleep.  Often she will go down and wake up every 10 mintues or so for about an hour so it can be 10:45pm before she is in bed for the night.

She normally wakes around 3:30 or 4:00am and I feed her and she goes right back down to sleep.
Some mornings she sleeps right until 8 or 8:30am, other times she wakes aroudn 6:30 for another feed, but goes right back to sleep again until 8:00 or 8:30am.

Shannon

[* Paula *]

Hi Shannon,

Have you tried extending your naps by using Pat / Shhh.  You could also try going into her room just before the 30 minute mark, and put your hand on her and when she jerks, you can shhh her then to help her transition into a deeper sleep.

After the 5pm feed, I would just let her have a cat nap of around 45 minutes then wake her, you can do your bath as your activity, then feed again after the bath, then start your winddown routine for bed.  If she wakes at 8 - aim for a 8 bedtime, if she wakes at 7, aim for a 7 bed time.  Although ideally you want to try and get her in bed by 7:30ish latest.

With doing the cluster feeds you may find that she will be able to go longer and won't wake up before the dreamfeed.

I am not sure what to suggest about the medication - perhaps just taking time for her system to get used to it.

It can take up to a week for the dreamfeed to be effective and start working, so it may be worth persevering with it.

HTH, Let us know if you have any other questions.

Paula x

[yaya]

Anna, how are you getting on?

[moorhan]

Hi ladies, this is Anna.  Thank you so much for your interest in us.  Things are going much better.  The evening fussiness has subsided substantially.  He is now 10 weeks old.  He will actually take a little catnap sometimes during our dinner.  We then start his bedtime routine between 7 and 7:30.  He is asleep between 7:45 and 8:15. 

He is still waking at around 3, but last night he did not demand a feeding at that time.  He went from 7:30pm until 6 am with no feeding!  I hope it wasn't a fluke.

We still have not gotten any better at the dreamfeed.  It just wasn't seeming to make much of a difference.  We are skipping it for now.  I'll see if he continues to stretch his feedings.  If not, I may try the dreamfeed again.  I think we were doing it a little too late.  Also, we have trouble staying up until 10 pm to do it...

Thanks again!

[* Paula *]

Hi Anna,

That is great news - I am so pleased that things are getting better.

With regards to the dreamfeed - it does not work for every lo, and by the sounds of it your DS is doing fantastically without it.

Keep us posted on how things get on.

Paula x