Dream feeds?

[MummyEdgar]

hi all,
we have been ex bfing william since birth and its going well in terms of latching and him getting plenty.

he seems to sleep a couple of hours after feeding during the day and through the night will go from 9ish to 1ish, then 2 til 5 or 6 ish but it takes an hour to feed and wind him and i do it when he wakes up. the times above are not consistent either so sometimes he goes stright to sleep after last feed at 7:30 and others he will fuss and cry until 9. sometimes i just dont know if we should have more routine by now (4 weeks) or if i should keep demand feeding and just trying to keep a decent gap between feeds by using a dummy. i think before we were snack feeding all day and he was never full for more then an hour, now we tend to get a least 2.5 hour gap. is this normal? or should we be getting a biggar gap in between feeds?

I keep reading about dream feeds but have no idea what they are? can someone shed some light on it and what the benefits are?

Also, do you wind baby after feeds in the night, when i wind him it wakes him up and then i have to spend an hour settling him back down - im told bf babies dont need winding - but this must be bull cos he burps every time he feeds but then he does guzzle milk down and is fed and asleep in 10 minutes max.

i love breastfeeding and glad both him and i have taken to it so well, but it is tiring and im a creature of habit and like routine, life without is throwing me, and i guess i want some reassurance that things will even out, at the moment, without writing it down, i have no idea what time he does what and what the expect as he can be so different day to day in terms of feedin and eating, the only static thing is 7pm bath and today it looks like that has gone out of the window cos he is fast asleep!!

sorry for long post and loads of questions, any advice would be appreciated
xxx

 

[Cantstop]

Certainly at 4 weeks old my LO had absolutely no routine in place with regards to feeding or sleeping but it did sort itself out eventually. If you give not winding him at night a go and see what happens - if he is fine then assume he doesn't necessarily need it, if he gets wind problems you'll know he needs it. A 10 min feed is pretty impressive mind, he must be a good sucker, my LO always took flippin ages. I personally just fed on demand whenever she wanted and never tried to put her off with a dummy, always seemed like more work and easier to just meet her needs. That said, my LO took ages to get into a routine so not saying my way was best, just what I felt happier with. I never did dream-feeding so will let someone else explain about that. Well done on bf and expect length of time between feeds to change all the time as growth spurts come and go

 

[Amber8]

Hi,

I am also ebf, my little girl is nearly 10 weeks & up until last night she will feed every 2-3 hrs during the day. I have always fed on demand as I don't see any benefit her screaming cos she's hungry (she doesn't have a dummy). At night I was feeding her about 8, bed at 8.30 then dream feed 11-11.30. She wud be up about 4-5 hrs later then 3-4 hrs after that, the dream feed is supposed to help them sleep longer. However last night I didn't do dream feed & she slept until 6.30! Not sure how soon she wud of done this if I'd of dropped it before now & it may also of been a one off.

Your baby sounds pretty normal to me with feeds etc. I never wind my little girl at night if she is fast asleep after the feed there is no need, I only do if she's awake because she'll just go straight back down normally.
It's a myth you don't need to wind bf babies, you do! I sometimes have to wind Ava in between feeds cos she's struggling with wind.

I have only in past 2 weeks got a more of a set routine day & night, until then I couldn't tell you what time she fed during the day because each day was different. Your baby is only 4 weeks, even tho it feels like they've been here forever you must remember its still early days. I tried a few different bedtime routines until I found 1 that worked for both Ava & us.

Things will definitely even out, it just takes time & patience but you will get there. Keep going your doing great!

Xx

 

[mrswoody]

We had no routine at 4 weeks old. LOs just fall into one themselves and I found it easier to go with Madison's lead.
I did dream feed but felt it didn't do much good for M so I stopped. She used to sleep through the night but now she is asleep by half wakes between 2-4am straight back to sleep then up between 5-6 feed then sleeps till 8-9am. I don't wind her in the night as she doesn't seem to need it
x

 

[Rhino Horn]

With both of mine if I bfed them to sleep then they wouldn't need winding.

As for routines I introduced a bed routine with both of them when they were 6 weeks old. Bath at 6 followed by boob then bed.

Dream feed didn't work for Seren but has worked for Bethan.

A lot if it is trial and error. But your LO is still very new so it will take a while before you feel there is some sort of structure to your day. That was always the hardest part for me, I like to be organised ans here was this little person throwing all sorts of obstacles in my way!

tapatalking

Proud mummy of Seren 15 Nov 2010 & Bethan 12 Oct 2012

 

[cosmicgirl]

I don't dream feed and I don't wind him either.
We have no real routine either xx

 

[MummyEdgar]

Thanks girls, nice to feel like I'm doing it right and the unorganised day is normal at the moment, think I'll just embrace the chaos and wait for a routine to appear