Introducing dream feed at 8 months?

greeneyed_bride

I know little to nothing about this topic, so if it's a terrible idea, just tell me. For the past several months, and especially the last month, DS (8 months old) has had sleep issues. He was only waking up once per night for about three months, and then everything fell apart. He was teething, then had a cold, now teething again, so he was waking up 6+ times a night and refusing to fall asleep without nursing for at least 3-4 of them. Nursing is definitely a sleep association for him, so I think sometimes he doesn't know he can sleep without it.

Anyway, thanks to Orajel and acitaminophen, he is now "only" waking up twice a night to nurse. He sleeps 5-6 hours between feedings, but since he goes to bed at 7, that means that his first nursing session (at around midnight) happens an hour or two after I go to bed, and then I wake up to nurse him again five hours later. I'm wondering if nursing him right before I go to bed (around 10 or 11) would buy me some extra sleep and mean that I'd only have to wake up to nurse him once. But I don't know if it would just make him wake up and refuse to go back to sleep. He falls asleep really well after nursing if he wakes up on his own, but I don't know if me waking him would be different. Thoughts? Opinions? Have you tried it and had it work/not work?