Ok first of all I want to make sure I understand what is meant by the term,dream feed. I've seen it mentioned here, but never explained. I think it's when the babies are mostly sleeping through the night, but the parents get them out of cribs to feed them while they sleep. Does this include a diaper change?

Here is our situation. Our guys are almost 4 months old, 7 months adjusted. They've been STTN for awhile now, going 10 - 12 hours at night, with a 3 hour schedule during the day. Their last bottle is only 2 hours from the previous one.

They are on the 22 cal formula. At our last well baby I mentioned I didn't think they were drinking enough, but she was happy with weight gain. They drink 17-20 ounces a day. Closer to the lower number, but once in awhile someone pulls a 24 ounce day.

Well one of our guys has just refused to eat. He take 2 or 3 and gets distracted. I've tried different nipples with faster flow rates, but he's pretty particular. So we had to do dream feeds for him a couple of times. Around 10 or 12pm. Then feeding him again at 5am when the other two wake. Those two feedings would make up at least half f his total milk for the day.

Last night he didn't need it, but woke at 3am to eat. I took him downstairs so he wouldn't wake the other two, but by the time he was done another one was waking up
anyway.

Today I got the impression they might be ready for a 4 hour schedule. They all slept through one feeding, waiting 4 hours. However instead of gobbling up their bottles they barely drank 3 ounces each. An hour later it was time for the last bottle and it was a struggle to get 1 oz in two of them and 2 oz in the other. So I just did dream feeds for them all.

Am I doing the right thing? Will this mess up their sleeping habits by making them need a night time bottle?

I've been trying faster nipples, but they seem to prefer latex standard size. I've tried Dr. browns 2 silicone, playtex silicone, Medela medium flow silicone and they either are two fast or my guys refuse to use them.

I nursed my DD and she was co-sleeping at this point, so this whole thing sinew to me. She still wakes in the middle of the night most evenings.

Thanks!

Christina

Daughter born 1/4/09
BBB born 9/9/10 @ 27w 5d
Daughter born 8/14/12
http://schroeters.blogspot.com/

We've operated under the definition of dream feeding as starting a feed while they are asleep and keeping their wakeful state as low as possible. So no talking to them, as little jostling as possible etc...

Do you weigh them yourselves?

We started weighing them early every other day. It was good for us at first to have that comfort that they are growing. However, now I'm thinking it's adding extra stress and worry on us if we see someone has lost a little or didn't gain, especially if that kiddo was difficult to feed that day. It makes us want to alter our routine to frequently I think. We'll be moving to an weigh in every 4 days now.

I wish I had an answer for you. Lately our girls have been struggling to finish their bottles too. Our girls are putting down about 27-30oz a day of breast milk (higher volume than you but lower cal). I thought with our most difficult we would try a 4 hour schedule for her so last weekend we tried it out...didn't affect her at all...she still took the entire hour to eat.

We're using Dr. Brown level 3s right now, and occasionally experimenting with Abby on a level 4. She was the first to go to a level 3 and is now doing some of the same things she did when she was ready to move from a level 2.

Its frustrating to seem them not want to eat isn't it? Abby I think is starting to resent bottle time if she's not hungry. She'll be in a great cheerful mood, and then she sees the bottle and whammo the waterworks start...so we hold off and she ends up starting 45 minutes after her sisters on most feeds...kinda ruins the schedule thing.

All that to say...everyone has their own metabolism speed, hunger thresholds etc. If they are gaining weight appropriately (but don't go overboard weighing them like I think we do) and peeing and pooping enough, then I'd say follow your Dr's instinct. I think when the babies are as early as yours and ours were, we tend to over-think it.

Ryan & Megan
GGG Born 8/9/10 28 weeks 5 days
Lily Ann 2lbs 12oz. 54 days in NICU
Emma Grace 2lbs 6oz. 55 days in NICU
Abigail Rose 2lbs 7oz. 55 days in NICU
http://thesmithfamilytriplets.blogspot.com/

Thanks! Knowing it isn't just us does make me feel better. We haven't weighed them at home. They were getting it once a month from HHC when they got their Synagis shots. However, the NICU requested the wrong number of doses and we didn't realize it in time, so they missed their March dose altogether. Our Ped is trying to request it, but we'll see. So it has been awhile. Maybe that will make me feel better.

They only like the nipples we got from the hospital. Which I'm sure are way to slow. We have to use the Medela bottles or Evenflo. Anything else we tried they just hated. I mean they are going for the cheaper, easier systems, but it's still a pain.

Christina

Daughter born 1/4/09
BBB born 9/9/10 @ 27w 5d
Daughter born 8/14/12
http://schroeters.blogspot.com/

My trio is 21 weeks actual, 13 weeks adjusted. They have been sleeping through the night for about a month. Before that though we were doing the dream feeding. I would change them and put them in their chair for feeding. There is no talking and no lights. I had a night light on and a sound machine going so any noise was muffled. After they were done they are burped then go right back to bed.

I guess I still do "dream changings"... someone else referred to it as ninja so I had a little chuckle just now. They go to bed around 8, 2 hours after their evening bottle. I will check them when I go to bed or if I wake up in the middle of the night. I usually change all three if one needs it. Again, no talking and not too rough!

My trio came home on a four hours schedule, now I feed on demand now which seems to be about 5 - 5.5 hours. We are starting solids now too. My biggest eats 22-24 oz per day and the little two eat 18-20 per day. I BF and pump 3 times a day, everyone gets 1 oz of BM per bottle and mine are on the 22 cal as well. The doc hasnt said anything so I guess their weight gain is fine.

I would suggest trying to push for the 4 hour feeding giving them more in each bottle. If they are more hungry maybe they will eat faster. When I feed everyone is done eating in 20 minutes. It did use to take an hour to feed, I dont miss that.

Good luck. I am no pro at this. It is definitly a learn as you go kinda thing.

Carrie
BBG born 11/12/10 at 31W5D
Joseph Parker ~ 3 lbs 1oz
Nathaniel Morris ~ 3 lbs 5oz
Riley Grace ~ 2 bs 11oz

Christina, ours had major nipple issues as well. We kept using the ones we got from the hospital until they were starting to tear. So we switched to the nipples that came with the bottles we had bought. Oh, we had a rebellion on our hands. It was so bad that I ended up going to two different stores in one day and bought every kind of nipple available. Apparently, one of them was exactly like the hospital one. So we stuck with those stage 1 nipples forever (probably until 8 or 9 months) because mine refused anything else.
Good luck!
Petra
DS 08/02
DD 05/04
BBG 05/09 32.1 weeks