Ditching the dream feed

[IsaB]

After reading a lot of the other posts I'm almost to ask this question as I know some of you are really lacking in the sleep department...DD is booby-fed and we have a pretty good routine going - she feeds 5 times a day then I do a dreamfeed at 11pm and she sleeps through till around 8am. Thing is, I don't want to screw up what I know is a good thing and ditch the dreamfeed too early and have her waking earlier/through the night again, but I'm also trying to write my Masters thesis, and because she sleeps so well at night, she doesn't sleep much during the day which leaves me no time for it.

Sooo, I'm thinking if I can drop the dreamfeed I can get to bed earlier, and if she continues sleeping through till 8ish, get up early and do a couple of hours writing each day before she wakes up. My question is - am I being a little too idealistic? Is she still too young to do this? For those of you who had babies sleeping through by 4 months, when did you ditch the dreamfeed? Did you just go cold turkey? And did it make a difference to your baby's sleeping patterns? Thanks for your advice!

Ooh, forgot to add - should I forget even trying this till we've gone through the 4 month growth spurt??

 

[MummyJess]

Didn't want to read and run but I'm afraid mine have all been poor sleepers so have no experience of this really. (Lucky you!)

My instinct tells me that you should certainly try it, maybe on a day when it doesn't matter too much about getting a lot of sleep just in case it all goes wrong. Maybe the weekend? Give it a couple of nights just to test the water?

I'm sure somone out there will have had experience of this. My only concern would be that she still gets enough milk, but with breastfeeding it's hard to tell anyway - mine all demand fed and had night feeds right up to 10 months!

 

[IsaB]

Thanks for your reply!

My only concern would be that she still gets enough milk, but with breastfeeding it's hard to tell anyway

This is also my concern - I feel like she's taking less and less from me at the dreamfeed, but when DH gave her a bottle of EBM a couple of times for the feed last week she chugged back 220mls (7.5oz) - I'm convinced she doesn't take that much off me but am worried about dropping it too early seeing as she took that much from the bottle. Doesn't seem to make a difference to her sleep though as to whether she has bottle or boob

BTW, REALLY hope you get a good sleeper this time - good luck!!

 

[andreag]

I dropped it about 6 months, but she always had EBM for a dream feed, and was taking 6-8oz. She was sleeping through from 10 weeks (7.30 to 6.30ish) She never noticed it had gone - never woke up for it or altered her waking time. I probably could have dropped it earlier, but like you I was nervous about upsetting a good routine. You can always give it a try and see -a couple of days are unlikley to upset a routine which has been in place for a while. Alternative would be to express in the evening for your OH to give her when he went to bed if thats later. This is what we did.

 

[Sherlock]

FWIW I had someone suggest to me to ditch a late night/dream feed (not that I ever really did but would sometimes) in favour of feeding lots between 5pm and bedtime. Galen goes down between 8-9pm. We did this and he feeds a lot in between those hours. As soon as we started doing this, he started sleeping through the night. Till 7am ish. He is gradullaly feeding less during this time now, but we do space out his bedtime feed in to two parts. One after his bath, while in his towel, then dry him off, get him ready for bed and so on and 10-15 minutes later when in his sleeping bag he goes back on my boob to finish filling up for the night

FWIW breastfed babies can go overnight from about 12 weeks or so without needing a feed. I found that if I was the one to change Galen at night or see to him he would look to feed. If OH does it, never worries and goes off back to sleep. He really was only looking for a comfort feed because it was me and he could smell the boobie milk.

He is 4 months old exactly today and we've had no problems with the transition.

 

[IsaB]

Thanks for your replies

Alternative would be to express in the evening for your OH to give her when he went to bed if thats later.

Unfortunately can't do this all the time is OH is only home half the month, am solo parenting the rest of the time

You can always give it a try and see -a couple of days are unlikley to upset a routine which has been in place for a while.

You're probably right there - guess it'll only take one or two nights to find out whether it's still needed!

FWIW I had someone suggest to me to ditch a late night/dream feed (not that I ever really did but would sometimes) in favour of feeding lots between 5pm and bedtime. Galen goes down between 8-9pm. We did this and he feeds a lot in between those hours. As soon as we started doing this, he started sleeping through the night.

How many times is Galen feeding in this time? At the moment depending on what's happened during the day I usually do two feeds between 5 & 8 - although I think Isabella is a lot slower on the feeding front than Galen by the sound of things (generally feeds still take around half an hour - or tonight an hour ) - good to know he's sleeping through without top-ups at the same age - makes me a bit more confident about dropping it.

 

[Sherlock]

How many times is Galen feeding in this time? At the moment depending on what's happened during the day I usually do two feeds between 5 & 8 - although I think Isabella is a lot slower on the feeding front than Galen by the sound of things (generally feeds still take around half an hour - or tonight an hour ) - good to know he's sleeping through without top-ups at the same age - makes me a bit more confident about dropping it.

He feeds either around 4pm ish, then 6pm ish and then not till 8ish and that feed is broken in to two parts with about a 10 minute break in the middle. The second part of the feed is the long slow fill up.

If he is out time wise on feeds, we usually go 5pm ish, then a short feed at around 6pm then go till 8pm ish again. I get that extra feed in the middle, even if short and then go at least 2 hours so as to let my boobs fill up again.

Galen will always feed from both boobs at bedtime then. He drains one and then goes on to the other, then back on the second boob again after his break.

FWIW when we went for the lots of feeding idea we also then decided that if he woke in the night (between midnight and 6am) that OH would get up and see to him. Nappy change, put mobile on and settle him back down. That I would stay away. And only if he really really didn't settle and started screaming would he go to me to go on my boob. It was the only way to see if he really needed those night feeds. We opted to start this on a Friday night so we had 2 nights clear that OH didn't have to be up early in the morning (in case nights were hellish). Galen woke the first night around 4am and OH changed nappy and settled him. Galen then woke at 6.45 and fed Saturday night, same thing, woke around 3am iirc and OH saw to him and he took about 30 minutes to go back to sleep. Sunday night, fussed in the night but did not actually wake up. Monday night he slept through and did so for 6 nights in a row. Last 2 nights he woke around 4am as was really wet. Went back to sleep no problem and did not even fuss. OH saw to him then also. Every morning he has woken around 7am

 

[IsaB]

Go you Sherlock! Well done! Good idea about OH seeing to the overnight wake-up's if they happen - was going to do it when hubby was away so it's only me being bothered by it, but might wait for a time when he's home instead (problem shared and all that )