I've posted a couple times about giving babies (Piper in my case) a "dream feed" at around 11pm and several folks have asked, "what the heck it that?" The simple answer is, feeding them while they are sleeping, but that doesn't explain the reason behind doing it. In this post I will try to describe it in a little more detail.
When Aliyah was born I began looking for books about having a baby on a schedule. I checked out several books and finally found one by Tracy Hogg, aka "The Baby Whisperer." I ended up buying a book called "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems." This book has been INVALUABLE to me! I learned a TON and I really believe that it has been the major contributor to the fact that Aliyah is such a good and predictable sleeper. I mean, how many 18 month olds do you know who go to bed at 5pm and sleep through the night til 7am? It's amazing to me.Anyway, the main crux of the book is the importance of routine in your children's lives and learning what works best for YOUR child's temperament and personality. Routine vs schedule...this was big to me. By having a routine, the baby knows what to expect (what comes next) and mom can more easily interpret her needs (crying doesn't always mean hunger...if she ate 2 hours ago then she's probably ready to sleep). She uses the acronym of E.A.S.Y (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You). She provides recommendations for how it should look for different ages (how much and how often they should be eating, how long the activity time should last and how much they should be sleeping).
So what does it look like in practical terms? Let's use Piper as an example. She is 3 1/2 months old and at her age, she should be headed toward a 4 hour routine. Keep in mind, these times are flexible, but the key is the routine. Here's what 4 hour EASY routine looks like (I took this straight from the book with a few of my own additions):
E: 7:00 - Wake and feed
A: 7:30 - Activity
S: 9:00 - Sleep (1 1/2 - 2 hr nap)
Y: Your choice - it's YOU time after all
E: 11:00
A: 11:30
S: 1:00 (1 1/2 - 2 hrs)
Y: Your choice
E: 3:00
A: 3:30
S: 5:00 or 6:00 or somewhere in between: cat nap (approx 45 min)
Y: Your choice
When you get into the evening hours things change up a bit by "tanking up", meaning that you get more food in the babies tummy before 11pm which in turn enables them to sleep through longer stretches at night.. This is especially good for when they are going through a growth spurt (like Piper is now). In this case, you do what is called a "Cluster Feed" at 7:00 and at 9:00 and a Dream Feed at 11pm (which I will explain shortly). So it would look like this:
E: 7:00
A: Bath
S: 7:30 bedtime
Y: You time
E: 9:00
A: Quick and quiet diaper change then straight back to bed
S: 9:30
Y: You time
Dream Feed: 11pm
Dream Feed: You literally feed the baby in his sleep. You don't talk to them, or put the lights on or change his diaper or anything. When you put the nipple (breast or bottle) in their mouth it activates their sucking reflex and they will eat while they are sleeping. By the time you are done, they are so relaxed that you don't even need to burp them. Then they are nice and full and because they aren't doing any activity to burn the calories, they sleep longer. It is really amazing! She recommends continuing to do a dream feed until solid foods have been well established in their diets. She says that by 16 weeks they should be able to go 6-8 hours during the night if you have provided them with enough food during the day.
All I know is that it worked for us. Aliyah is an amazing sleeper and has been sleeping around 8 hours since about 5 months old. This is the method I used and I'm certain it's what got her sleeping 8 straight hours pretty early on. I admit though that I haven't really been paying as much attention to Piper's schedule and I realize that I haven't been doing as well with her, but I'm starting now and I'm willing to be that within a month or so she will increase her night time sleep from 5 hours to closer to 7 hours. That would be a dream come true for this mama!
So there you have it.
