At 12 weeks, she started sleeping from her dream feed
until early morning feeding (10 pm to 6 am) for two weeks, then she started waking up at 3 am consistently.
This is how our schedule currently looks: 6:30
am early morning feed then bed 10 am nurse 1:30 pm nurse 5:00 pm nurse 8:30 pm nurse, 1 T oatmeal 9:00 pm bed He sleeps from 9:00 - 6:30 without waking as of last week.
Now it seems, she has eliminated her dream feed on her own and is sleeping from 8 pm to 3 am, then waking up at 6 (
our early morning feeding) and going directly back to sleep for an hour before we leave for daycare.
We stopped doing the dream feed when my son was about 3 months old because he still was not sleeping through to the morning despite the dream feed and I finally decided that I'd rather go to bed when he does and get as much sleep as I can before
his early morning feeding, instead of setting an alarm or staying up till 10 or 11.
See
Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime for more on this early morning feeding.
Doing this means that I am doing
an early morning feeding (5:30) instead of a dream feed.
See my post called «
early morning feedings before waketime» to see what I do when it hasn't been three hours yet.
If that doesn't work, see the post «
Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime»
Label this milk and use it for evening and
early morning feedings.
Late nights,
early morning feedings, misplacing your cup of coffee only to find it hours later; a crying baby, a cranky spouse, spit - up in your hair and the baby soaking through another diaper — this is the reality of bringing a new baby home.
You do not want to have to get a bachelor's degree to assemble this thing, especially when you are doing late night and
early morning feedings.
still do
an early morning feed though, somewhere btwn 4 - 5 and back to sleep till 6.30 / 7 am — got to nix that too!
Especially the late evening or
early morning feedings, because they can be private, are great times to keep breastfeeding a little longer and have that special time with your baby.
Some mums ask their other halves to do the dream feed as this can mean they can get to bed earlier (at 9 pm, for example) and then sleep until
the early morning feed at around 5 or 6 am (assuming your baby hasn't woken before that, of course.)
The rubber tyres means it is quiet when I wheel him out for
an early morning feed, it is a perfect height which was a blessing for the first few days at home.
KMonti, have you read the post «
early morning feedings before waketime»?
If you night wean, keep in mind two things: (1) your baby will still likely need
an early morning feeding for a while, after which he may nurse back to sleep or be up for the day — be prepared for either scenario and (2) you can still nurse your baby down to sleep at the beginning of the night.
It was great for pulling up next to our bed for late night /
early morning feedings.
i work full time but co sleep so the midnight and
early morning feedings aren't so bad.
Anyway, just wanted to say that your words of encouragement and experience helped get me through
this early morning feeding.
DD also partially reversed cycled, so I think she was getting a lot of her milk intake during two evening feedings, two middle of the night feedings, and
an early morning feeding before I left for work.
Portions for the night and
early morning feeds can be stored in the refrigerator just under the freezer compartment, for a maximum of 24 hours.