Dreamfeeding

It's when you get bubs up before going to bed, say round 10pm, to give them a top up feed. It can help them sleep through better.

Yep the idea is that they are still dreaming when you feed them. So pick them up as gently as possible and shove the boob or bottle in, the rooting and sucking reflex will take care of the rest. They may not take a whole feed but will probably take close to it. If they remain asleep for the feed then you don't need to burp you can just put straight back to bed. I was sceptical about that part at first but really you don't need to, because they are asleep they don't gulp in air with the frantic drinking they do when awake.

Is great cos they get the extra food needing to get throught he night but they don't get into the habit of waking for that feed cos they have no idea they are having it.

I have just re-introduced a dreamfeed to Lauren two weeks ago as she was waking twice a night!
i dreamfeed her at 10:30pm and she now sleeps through until 6 or 7am. Without the d/f she was waking up at 1am and then again at 4am and would not go back to sleep without a bottle

I am not sure what the general consensus (sp?) is but I don't get Lauren up, I just rub her back (she's a tummy sleeper) to let her know i am there, gently turn her over in her cot and pop the bottle in her mouth. She doesn't even open her eyes. When she's finished she rolls back over and continues on sleeping!

Who knows if my way is the "right" way, but it works for me so I am going with it!

How early can I start giving Ollie a dream feed? He's only three weeks old but I'm hanging out for him to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time over night!!

Am I being too impatient?

I didn't start until around 8 weeks until then we didn't really have any routine but at around 8 weeks I started putting him to bed at 6.30pm and would then dreamfeed him at 10.30pm, this would then get him through till 4-5ish.

My ownly concern with not getting them up would be that giving a bottle laying down can cause ear infections. I use to pick Spencer up cos originally he was having a boob and I just continued when he had a bottle instead, I found the times he did stir a little he would normally nod off again before the end of the feed.

Some people do wake them for the feed at that time though as some babies just don't seem to feed asleep, so just have a play around and see what works for you. If you need to wake them change the nappy as that gets them nice and awake and then give them the feed to get them all dreamy again.

oh yeah i meant babies own routine - you know how some like 3 hrly feeding, others 2, and eden it was always after 4 feeds she would have her longest sleep so by me waking her at 10ish i could sort of control when she went for her longest sleep, and this was from about 2/3 weeks.

.Mel wrote: I do Coopers dreamfeed the same way Peachy... everyone who knows Cooper knows that he hates me feeding him.. so I prop the bottle up with his muzzie, I do it this way for him during the day also. He's never had an ear infection....

.Mel, thats great to hear that Lauren is not the ONLY one that hates me feeding her too! She feeds herself laying on the floor, any attempt for me to cradle and feed her ends in a screaming match or bottle rejection!

*Touches wood* no ear infections here either although I had heard that it increased the chances of them. I have no other option though than to lie her down !!