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
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