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Waking baby for early night feedings

tessajdtessajd member
in Babies: 3 - 6 Months
Our son is 5 months old and for the most part still waking up twice between midnight and 5am to eat.  He's clearly hungry when he wakes -- once he eats we put him down in his crib awake and he is content and falls asleep on his own soon after.  I've noticed that when he wakes up around 10pm to eat, there is only one middle of the night feeding later on.  However, it is rare that he wakes up that early.

Do any of you have feedback about whether it's a good idea to wake him up on our own at 10pm for a feeding?  For our first baby we followed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" strictly, and it advises not to wake a sleeping baby.  The book worked perfectly the first time, but not this time around.  We are desperate!

Thanks!
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Re: Waking baby for early night feedings

  • tessajdtessajd member
    Thanks! Do you change her diaper at that time, too?
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  • Amberino86Amberino86 member
    I put our LO to bed at 8, but I work at midnight so I wake him to 11 to change his diaper and feed him. He doesn't seem to mind us waking him a bit and instead of getting up at 330 he sleeps until 7 for my hubby. Sometime he will wake by himself now at 11.
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  • Stephanie2167Stephanie2167 member
    We also wake both girls up at 10:30pm. Change diapers, feed, put back to bed in their magic sleepsuits. They both then sleep until 6am or so.


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  • StephandMatt2012StephandMatt2012 member
    Same here, my guy goes to sleep at 7pm then I usually wake him at 10:40 for a feed and diaper change he eats goes right back down and sleeps until morning 6:30am I will stop doing that feed once he's a bit bigger and eating some solids :) do what works though might need to play around with it for a few nights
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  • jtmomma13jtmomma13 member
    I never found that waking my baby or doing a dream feed helped with middle of the night feedings. It never helped him sleep longer.  

    I've just let him make his own schedule and feed on demand if that's what he is waking up for. I always change his diaper if he wakes to eat. He would pee through his diaper if I didn't. If he just wakes and doesn't need to eat then I don't change his diaper. 

    He has been a pretty good sleeper- he's down to one wake up now at 7 months and will sometimes STTN. 
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  • cagoldicagoldi member
    We tried a few times and didn't see much of a difference as far as how long the baby slept. I also did it when he had a cold and hadn't eaten much during the day so I was concerned about him getting dehydrated. So whether he woke up because he was sick and uncomfortable or because the dreamfeed just wasn't working the way we hoped, I guess I'll never know.

    Ultimately we decided it just isn't for us. I don't want to force a meal on him if he isn't really hungry and have him get used to eating at a certain time if he doesn't need a bottle. We're respecting the schedule he creates for himself as far as eating is concerned and we'll deal with the MOTN wake-ups.
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  • TREDgirlTREDgirl member
    Our twins are 5 1/2 months old and our new schedule has them drink their last bottle at 7PM, then to bed and then I get them up at 6:30 AM to start the day. 

    I had been doing a MOTN feeding until about 3 weeks ago then shifted their schedule according to the Moms On Call scheduled outlined in their 0-6 month old book. The first few nights were rocky but now they are sleeping 9-11 hours a night. I absolutely think our adjusted day time feedings have provided them the opportunity to get full enough to go all night without eating. 
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  • Cupcakes339Cupcakes339 member
    My LO goes to bed around 9 and sleep/dream eats around 3 AM. She's been that way since 10 week until now (22 weeks). She will not quite wake up but starts kicking or moving around 3 AM so I BF before she gets up. Last week, I noticed that she moved around a little at midnight but continued to sleep. I was curious if she was getting hungry earlier now that she is almost 5 mo. Since 12AM is my last pumping time, I tried giving her a bottle the next day at 12AM even though she wasn't showing signs of waking up (kicking, turning head back and forth) and just sleeping. To my surprise, she took the bottle quite eagerly but still sleep eating. I just gently put the bottle nipple to her mouth and she took it right away. She then didnt need to BF until 6 AM and it's been our new routine since.
    So, i think you can try sleep feeding your LO at 10 AM, and see if he likes it.
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