What to do re night time feeding....

[lucysummers]

OK...so we have been REALLY lucky....since 3 1/2 weeks Abi has slept from 7 till 7 with a 200ml EBM dreamfeed at about 11pm. She's occasionally woken up earlier but generally that has been because she's filled her nappy or some other reason.

The last couple of weeks though more often than not I have had to go into her to wake her at 8am. She wakes very happy and then stays awake but I am wondering whether to stop the dreamfeed and see if she goes through......the only thing is I don't want to then get stuck through the night...now I have had my nights back for so long I don't really want to lose them again!!!!

My thoughts were to give her the bottle of EBM at 7 so she still goes to bed with a nice full belly....BUT...this is also the breastfeed that I really love with huge cuddles and was the breastfeed I was planning on dropping last.....

When I feed her at bedtime (7) she rarely takes much so I don't think it would take her through.

She currently feeds 2-3 hourly during the day.

Thanks for any ideas

[Jamaica]

Is she on solids yet?
I think cutting out the dreamfeed is a good idea. When we stopped it we just demand feeded overnight. She may wake for a feed or not but it doesnt take long & they happily sleep through. I think give it a couple of days and she will start taking more of that last feed too.
good luck

[lucysummers]

She's not on solids yet as she's only 14 weeks. Hadn't thought about that though. Maybe I'll wait until she starts solids and then drop it then....was planning on starting them around the 4 month mark...started DS at 17 weeks.

[Mrs Awesome]

My MCHN said to keep up the dreamfeed until about 7 months (once solids are fully established), then to try dropping it.

[Ushas]

We dropped Kians midnight feed a few weeks back. He's been absolutely fione and is actually taking more milk during the days now. He is also on solids 2-3 times a day (it's slowly increasing). He would have been about 19 weeks when we dropped the feed. I figured we'd try it once and see what happened, but we've never looked back.

[KeithCheggers]

Our DS has been on solids for about 2 weeks (he's 24 weeks), he has his last BF at about 5 and then a formula top up after a bath normally between 7-8. He is still waking for a BF between 1 and 3 though and then normally wakes between 6-7. We never had any success with the dream feeds though - more often than not he refused to go back to bed!!

I'm hoping once he's up to 3 regular meals a day he may grow out of the night time waking.

I'm sure whatever you decide will be right for your bubs though, you really have been lucky with those sleeps (any spare one's send them my way!!!).

[lucysummers]

thanks for the messages guys!

Think I'm going to keep going till at least solids and then maybe keep cutting it down a bit till it's no longer there..hopefully she'll then continue to sleep through.

Not sure what we're doing re solids yet. Started DS at 17 weeks but she's showing no signs at all so probably won't start her till a little later.

[lucysummers]

Just thought I would let you know I dropped the dreamfeed down to 150ml last night and she still went through to 7 this morning :D.....will keep lowering it till it's cut completly!