Dreamfeeding question

[bindiloo]

I was wondering if anyone has tried the dreamfeeding from tizzie halls book and if they found it worked well.
I dont understand how you feed them without waking them when i always have to change bubs nappy before i feed her which wakes her so do they just have to lay in a soiled nappy?
:confused:

[Lunar]

I give Kailah a dream feed every night. I change her nappy, she wakes up but then goes back to sleep before the bottle goes in her mouth.
She drinks the same amount as she would during the day. If I didn't give her that feed she would only be having 4 feeds during the day and she is too little for that yet.
Are you bf or ff?
I don't know how it would go with bf...?

[bindiloo]

FF, so do you just wake them before you know they would normally wake so they are still sleepy?

[Lunar]

No I just wake her 4-4.5hrs after her last bottle. She drinks it asleep and then it's back to bed, she sleeps all night.
I just do this....
Make her bottle,
Change her nappy,
Feed her.
If she wakes, she wakes. But if she sleeps she still drinks.
Just give it a go see if it works.

[Mrs Little]

I agree with Emysmum.

They are so sleepy that they generally stay fairly well asleep.

Just try not to make any loud noises. Only have a dim light on...or turn a hall light and open the door a crack. Only whisper to her if needed.

I dreamfeed my DS till he was 5.5 months.

routine: ( 10pm)

Make bottle
Turn hall light on and open door just a crack so the light comes into his room a little.
Change his nappy. ( Better before the feed...that way if he fell alseep while feeding i didn't have to wake him up to change it later on).
Re-wrap him ( so he's ready to go straight to bed after the feed- again so it would be easier to put him to bed if he fell alseep while feeding).
Feed him on the rocking chair in his room.
When finished with the bottle i would hold him upright for burping ( wouldn't really pat his back too hard as it would wake him. Generally i found that he would burp as soon as i held him upright).
Put him in the cot and tuck the sheets in.
Leave the room and turn the hall light off.

ALL DONE...

Hope that helps.

Mrs Little & Son.

[Lunar]

Mrs Little, I feed Kailah in the lounge room with the tv on (so I'm not bored..lol) with the light on and all and she still stays sound asleep, little angel:)

[bindiloo]

Is there a certain age you can start it from?
My little one is nearly 6weeks.

[Lunar]

ANY age! I have been doing it from day 1. Kailah has slept through from about 1 week old so I had to wake her.

[bindiloo]

I think ill give it a go tonight then. she usually wakes for a feed around midnight so ill try to get her before she wakes.

Thanks ladies:)

[JeSsIkA]

wow.. i have nerver head of this or even thought of it.
i am soo impressed... i wake to feed my 5month old between 2 -2:30 every night (the bottle before is usually around 7:30) i am going to give this a go then maybe he will sleep through.. and i will finally get a decent sleep until at least 5:30 when he wakes for the next one.
wow i cant believe i never even thought about it before..

[bindiloo]

I read about it on another thread where they were talking about it so curiosity got the better of me and i looked up this tizzie hall lady on the internet and i think i might buy her book it seems interesting.

I didnt get to give little one her the midnight feed before she woke cause she wouldnt go down after her 8.30pm feed so she was already awake.lol

Ill try again tomorrow night. :fingerscrossed: hopefully she'll sleep this time cause god knows i need it:sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping:

[JeSsIkA]

well i tried this last night and it didnt go very well.. it fed him at about 10:45.. he took the whole bottle , but then woke screaming at 2am i couldnt settle him, he wanted another bottle.. then same thing happened at 4am... arrghh!! he drank another full bottle.... i dont get it...
when will he learn to sleep overnight...

[Nicolet]

I dream fed DS following Tizzie Hall's book and wish I'd never started it. I would wake him at 11pm and he would feed and go back to sleep no problems. However 16 months on, he is still waking up bang on 11pm and demanding his bottle. I know it is just habit for him because he doesn't need the milk and it's always at the same time. Arrrrgh! I wish I'd never started it!!!

[Spewiesmum]

I've followed Tizzie's routines since DS was 7 weeks. He is now 8 months. The dreamfeed works - you just need to give it time. Same for the routine should you follow it.

DS only started sleeping through the night at 5 months, and weaned himself off the dreamfeed at 6 months.

You have to remember that some babies are hungry babies - DS certainly is. He still has an extra bottle during the day.

I also found that having to change him would wake him so once we made the switch from disposables to modern cloth (Baby Beehinds - hemp), we no longer needed to change a nappy during the night.

[Mrs Little]

I fed my son every 3 hours for the first 5 weeks of his life....24hrs a day.

Then after 5 weeks i would do his dream feed at 10pm and then let him wake me for the next feed.I would normally feed him at 1am, 4am, 7am. He extended his sleep naturally. I would never wake him for a feed after this 5 weeks period. Every night he would add on 15 or 20 mins. So eventually he would feed at only 4am after the 10pm feed. Then he extended that sleep so there was no 4am bottle just a 7am bottle. He was sleeping from 10pm- 7am in his own time...which was about 7-8 weeks old.

It does mean dsitrupted sleep for a few weeks, as you have to feed every 3 hrs....but the result is priceless...for you and bubs. You get a full nights sleep. No more having to wake at night to feed.

You have to make sure that you feed them 3 hrly during the day too. Feed-wake-sleep.

Hope that helps.

Mrs Little & Son.

[annb]

I did the dream feed from about 10wks and it certainly worked for us, when DS got a bit older (around 6mths) I started to cut down on the amount of bottle during the 3amish feed, gradually over a few weeks and of course increased his solids/bottles during the day eventually he stopped waking for that feed, then around 9mths started to do the same with the dream feed, we didnt need to do the dream feed after about 10mths. Nicolet maybe you could try cutting back on your bubs bottle like that I would say at 16mths he is just wanting that bottle out of habit rather than necessity

[Tisme]

I dream fed DS following Tizzie Hall's book and wish I'd never started it. I would wake him at 11pm and he would feed and go back to sleep no problems. However 16 months on, he is still waking up bang on 11pm and demanding his bottle. I know it is just habit for him because he doesn't need the milk and it's always at the same time. Arrrrgh! I wish I'd never started it!!!

My daughter used to do thi as well and I know how frustrating it can be, heres what I did though.

AS I put her to bed I told her "I'll leave a bottle here for when you wake", I then would put her empty bottle by her head in the cot (I know your not supposed to but hear me out before condeming) As it was already empty it was only put there to let her know where to find it later. After she was asleep I would pull the bottle out and replace it at around 10:45 (before she woke) and give her only half a bottle (instead of a normal 250ml feed she only got 120ml) and she would wake, drink it a scream for more .... so I gave her 120 ml of water and said "we're out of milk sorry" after around 5 nights of being out of milk the idea that she was ONLY going to get 120 ml was enough and she settled with that .... then over the following 2 weeks I weakened the strength of that 120mls of milk .... 2 days of 100ml milk & 20ml water; 2 days of 80ml milk 40ml water etc. Finally she worked out it's only water and was satisfied to feed herself her water, cuddle into her sheets and go back to sleep. Then when she was ready she started to sleep through.
Mind you my daughter was prone to dehydrate so she NEEDED extra fluids; also she started to feed herself her bottle exclusively (she refused to allow us to feed her) at around 9 months although that dream feed had to always be in my arms.

I have used the dream feed (not realising anyone actually recommended it) for all 3 of my kids and both boys suprisingly enough weaned themselves off it .... yep Declan now sleeps steadily through from 8pm to 6am ..... with a brief interlude at 4am where he gets reflux and has to be re-propped-up in bed which I now do with my eyes firmly shut!!

[blueeyes]

Hi
We have recently introduced the dreamfeed as the babe was waking around 1am then 5am and then up for the day at 7am. Not a good thing for our sleep.
We dont follow the Tizzie Hall routine as babe doesnt sleep 2 hours a go as she recommends but anyway, it has worked wonders.
He has the feed and wakes anywhere from 4.30 to 5.30. Goes straight back to sleep and then wakes at 7am for the day. We did have a nightmare night on the second night as he then woke every 2 hours. He did not even do that when he was a newborn. I arked up, told DP wasnt doing that again but persisted and it now gives me a large block of sleeping time which equals a happier mum when we get up at 7am.
Try it, you will soon know whether it will be successful, as posted before some babies respond others dont.
Also, I dont change my boy at the dreamfeed, he is generally not wet enough and if you were to let them sleep through you wouldnt change their nappy. Only change if really wet or stinky. Babe doesnt wake only stirs and then straight back to bed. Like a log that he is.:D

[Nicolet]

Thanks Eleanor, that sounds like a good plan. I have weaned him off it once before by slowly reducing the amount of milk but I hadn't thought of replacing it with water. It was restarted again when he was teething one week and we were back to square one!. I have 2 weeks holidays now so I will make it my challenge to finally abolish the 'dream feed !' Wish me luck :fingerscrossed: