Dream feed opinions?
My little boy is 17 weeks old. We start bedtime routine at 7 with a bath and then feed and aim to have him down to sleep for 7.30pm (sometimes can be 7.45 ish depends how long he takes to have his bottle). He feeds every 3/3.5 hours.
He sleeps from 7.30pm in his cot in his own room (baby monitor on) - I don’t intend on letting him sleep in there overnight until he’s 6 months old+ but just for the first portion of the night so that when the time comes he will be used to being in there.
My partner and I then come up to bed around 10/10.30pm. I take him from his cot still asleep, change him and bring him into our room. We feed him a bottle and just let him take however much he can before he’s just completely in a deep sleep and stops feeding. He then sleeps in his bedside cot until around 1/2am he usually stirs but just wants his dummy back in and then he does the same around 3/4am (how do I stop these random wake ups too?!). He then wakes around 6/6.30am for the day.
My question is he is always still asleep when the dream feed time comes. Am I doing more harm by making him stir a little and feeding him and therefore disturbing his sleep cycle? Or are dream feeds recommended to help get them sleeping longer stretches?
Do we think he will sleep better if we just don’t bother with the dream feed and let him continue in his deep sleep?
If he is getting enough ounces in throughout the day you could try dropping the dream feed and we how he does. It’s still totally normal for his age to wake up once or twice in the night. He seems to be doing great though! Great job mama. My LO is just about the same age and waking multiple times in the night to breastfeed. Thankfully he goes back to bed pretty fast and I try not to change his diaper unless necessary.