To wake or not to wake..that is the quest
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Forum Name: First baby? Second or more?
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Topic: To wake or not to wake..that is the quest
Posted By: Rainbow
Subject: To wake or not to wake..that is the quest
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 10:17am
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I had previously asked about what age people started doing a dreamfeed but now for my second piece of non scientific research I am wondering if you woke your baby or kept them asleep and what the different outcomes were. There seems to be two schools of thought - some say keep baby asleep and others say to wake baby up (which in my mind is just a late night feed and not a dreamfeed as such).
I am still in two minds as to whether to do one with my DS2. His nights are still a little inconsistent (and I guess he is only nearly 8 weeks old) but we have gone from 8pm-4.30 on a number of occasions but on others he wakes at 1 and again at 4. What are your experiences please?  ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Replies:
Posted By: Two_Puddle_Ducks
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 10:31am
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I found that if I got my DS up for a dreamfeed or just a normal feed then he would wake more frequently. I think really you just need to try it for a few nights and see if it works for your baby and you. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 10:35am
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Dream feeds never worked for us, DD would still want to feed at 4am regardless of being fed earlier. In the end I left her to feed on demand and got myself to bed earlier and got an extra couple of hours sleep for myself.
She's now almost 7 months and has only STTN on a dozen occasions and frequently has 1 feed over night. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">   [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: Danda08
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 10:41am
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I did a 'late feed' with my girls until they self weaned at 6 months (shortly after starting solids). They slept through the night from 11.5 weeks (excluding the 30 mins it took to do the late feed).
"Dreamfeeding" never worked for us cos they would be so sound asleep nothing was getting past their lips . But I could wake them, feed them and resettle them immediately they finished feeding with no probs. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 11:05am
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I was told for it to be successful they had to be asleep but not 'dead' asleep just in the restless part ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: fairy1
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 12:21pm
We're the same. Doing a dreamfeed or an awake feed at bout 10pm means DS woke 3hrly so we don't bother. I prefer the longer sleeps. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Two_Puddle_Ducks wrote:Posted By: Hopes
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 1:27pm
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Jacob just sleeps through it most of the time. On the odd occasion, he'll open his eyes when I pick him up, ut close them almost straight away, to the point where you could hardly class it as waking. When he was quite young (four months?) I tried, and he was too asleep to drink anything. When he was a month or two older it worked fine. -------------   
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Posted By: Plushie
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 1:35pm
| ^^ interesting. I tried with DS but he was either so asleep you couldnt feed him or awake. I wondered if a bottle would be easier to DF with as you could push the teat in easier then latching to a nipple but never bothered to try. |
Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 2:43pm
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Unless DD is awake feed she won't latch properly and the pain from that wasn't worth it.
It is easier with a bottle. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: Flossie
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 4:36pm
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When DD was younger we tried a dreamfeed for about a week but she still woke at her set times in the night reguardless so we gave it up! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 5:28pm
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Snap Flossie the same thing happened to us. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: sweetknights
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 5:30pm
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I get my little girl up at 10.30pm for a feed she does wake but goes straight back down after her feed no effort..But to be honest I think she would sleep through without it but as she is only gaining weight slowly I don't want to drop that feed to see if she would. I think it really is hard to say so my suggestion is to try it for a few nights and see if it helps if you get him up to feed him before you go to bed it won't matter too much if he wakes in the night anyway xxx ------------- http://lilypie.com">  
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Posted By: kiwisj
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 5:38pm
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With DS1 we woke him for a late feed (10.30ish). DH would give him a bottle of EBM for that feed so I could sleep. He would generally go till 7am after that, this was from around 3mo (1mo adjusted age). At 4.5mo we stopped the late feed to see what would happen and from then on he slept 7-7.
With DS2 who is fully BF, we did a late feed that I fully woke him for, until he was about 10 weeks. He would sleep till 7 from that feed. Then we dropped the late feed and were getting full nights' sleep (yay!) till we went on a month's holiday at 5.5 months and by the time we came back he was waking 2 hourly and being fed back to sleep. Since doing Verbal Reassurance (from 7 months old) we're now doing a dream feed at 10.30 and he sleeps till 6 or later (6.45 today - best yet!). With regards to DF vs waking them .. I think at the OP's baby's age (around 8 weeks?) it's less likely to "work" although it really depends on what you're trying to achieve. Personally, at that early stage, I saw the late feed as an opportunity for DH to do a feed (or me if I hadn't expressed enough milk) and then I knew DS would sleep around 3-4 hours from the start of that feed. So if I expressed at 9.30 I could be in bed asleep before 10 and then sleep till around 2.30am which was often my longest stretch of sleep in those first few months! Later, if you're trying to get the "long sleep" to be from that late feed through till morning, it really just depends on your baby. The dreamfeed seems to be starting to work here (we started a week ago) but when we tried it with DS1 he would just wake up so we stuck with waking him fully to feed anyway. ------------- SJ Callum - Dec 2008 Daniel - Oct 2010 |
Posted By: Bizzy
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 7:02pm
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my daughter refused them. she would only ever feed when she was ready and that was only about 4 times a day, as a newborn. i would get so frustrated but she wouldnt have a bar of it. ------------- http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"> 
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Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 7:32pm
| I never bothered with Alex doing a dreamfeed. When hes asleep he doesn't feed anyway so it would be pointless trying. He was stretching out from his 7pm bedtime so I just let him do that rather than mess it up |
Posted By: Nikki
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 8:10pm
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I think it depends on the baby - DS always took one (boob, EBM or formula) and it worked to get him to wake later but it took quite a few days (at least 3 or 4) before it pushed his feed out. He was a good sleeper as a nb but then went into heart failure and slept really badly after surgery (6wks). By 12 weeks he slept thru with the dreamfeed and we kept doing it til he was on solids.
With DD, she flat out refused to take one - boob or EBM - no matter what we did. Could not wake her at all!!! If I did she just got grumpy and tried to go back to sleep. She slept thru by 5wks tho. ------------- DS (5yrs) and DD (3yrs) |
Posted By: sarasal
Date Posted: 21 May 2011 at 9:24pm
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We were co-sleeping, so when you're nursing in the dark, it's hard to tell if they're actually awake or not. I certainly never woke him up to feed him, just on demand. He would seek the breast for himself every 2-3 hours each night for the first few months, although now and then he would sleep longer. My son really seemed to need feeding at night as he was very big and grew so fast but all babies are different.
He loved the dreamfeeds - still does at 2.5, although it's usually only once a night now. I think it has been really good for him - he's very strong and healthy & seems to have a good resistance to illness. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: JAFAjaffa
Date Posted: 22 May 2011 at 2:28pm
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We did dream feeds from around 4 weeks. In the early days I used it as an opportunity for DH to give Alex EBM while I went to bed and slept through. Alex slept through the whole thing and guzzled back the milk. He was sleeping through the night consistently from 12 weeks. It took time to go from waking twice a night (normally 2:30am and 5am), down to once a night (between 3am to 5am), to none at all. I expressed in the morning so I could go to bed when I wanted!
Later on, when I was back at work (I went back when he was 6 months and DH was at home) sometimes I had to go to Wellington early in the morning, so I'd 'dreamfeed' him then too. It worked more times than not. DH would get a nice sleep in! I only stopped dreamfeeding at around 9 months, probably far later than he needed it! ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: JAFAjaffa
Date Posted: 22 May 2011 at 2:29pm
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Oh, I never woke Alex, he slept through it. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Bambino
Date Posted: 22 May 2011 at 3:10pm
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My DS never took to it (three and a half months now) so didn't continue to try. Also, I go to bed really early (before 9pm) so I preferred to get a few hours of decent sleep before he woke by himself rather than stay up. Usually would wake between 11 and 2 to feed and not sure that a dreamfeed would make any difference to that.
Now he is starting to sleep through occassionally by himself without one but unpredictable at best. Good luck. Bx |
Posted By: Nikki
Date Posted: 22 May 2011 at 8:40pm
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I should have said before - I never woke DS - he took it in his sleep. I also expressed early then went to bed and DH gave it to him, so it was great for me to get an extra hour or so sleep. ------------- DS (5yrs) and DD (3yrs) |