dreamfeed quesitons for those who do it

eileenm21

how was it with multiples?  did one wake the other at night.  I am just getting told by all my girlfriends that this is the thing to try since they are sleeping so much but waking at an odd time.  They did it with sucess.  I am not sure it will work as well with the twins.  Right now they sleep from about 7:30 to about 2 or 3 sometimes 4 for DD.  They are recommending it because they think a dreamfeed will help them go through from 11 to 7.  My pedi won't talk "schedules" but he has approved them going so long without eating.  I just want to know from any of you that did it, how it went, how long before they didn't wake up expecting the 2/3 am feeding.  etc.  I kind of have a good thing going so I am afraid to screw it up, but when I research it says this is the way to really set their clock the right way.  I had thought eventually that 2/3 would turn into 5/6 and we would be good, but I am told no.  Any advice, thoughts etc? TIA 

RoseWhite

I have heard success stories but it never worked for us.  The times I did try to do this, it would backfire and they would be up even more times that if I just let them wake up at their natural times.  It seemed like 7-2 or so was their deepest sleep.  They were waking up once (each) each to eat for a few months until we did a little bit of CIO at 6 months and they started going 7-7

Just try it and see how they do! 

 

Shannonlea

The dream feed worked for us up until this week.  Up until that point, we were able to go into the nursery at 10, turn off the sound machine (so the babies would stir a little) and then feed them in their cribs.  They were sleeping from 10-6 at 8 weeks.

At 12 weeks, we moved the dream feed to 9:45 and by 19 weeks, we had moved it all the way to 8:45 by moving it 5-10 minutes every week.  They continued to sleep until 6-7 AM

Until last week- which is when they hit the 4 month wakeful and now will not take the bottle at the dream feed (they literally scream their brains out) but then are wiiidddeee awake at 3 AM for a feed. 

Sweets2005

Dream feeds didn't work for us at that age because they either would NOT open their little mouths or they would wake all up. But then around 4 months, it worked much better. We do it at the same time or if one wakes a little earlier, we get the other one, too. It's great now because even if they wake a little (they usually do), they go right back down. I think mine are a little too old for it now but if we skip it, they know!

MomOfTrips

We tried dreamfeeding. The actual act of feeding them went fine. I would go in, gently pick one up from their crib as to not wake them, sat in the rocker, rocked and fed them. I never had issues with them just eating, burping, or sleeping all the way through it and putting them back in their cribs. If they needed to be changed I did it half way through the bottle and used a pacifier if the baby started stiring during it.

We started worrying though that it would hinder them in STTN and they also started stirring just before the scheduled time (in anticipation?). So we went back to on-demand. This has worked better for us. We also do complete on demand at night, meaning we only feed who wakes. I know a lot of people wake them all when they feed one but there are nights when one will sleep all through the night, or will just wake up once, or one will wake up 3 times. It can be more work some nights, but we feel they are all getting closer. DH and I split the night into shifts so we can both sleep though which allows it to work well. He takes from after they are put to bed until 3am. Then I have 3am on (he works during the day).