baby constantly stirring in sleep

[CJohns]

I may be a little premature in writing this, but after a horrendous night, I am getting a little desperate.

Little one is almost 6 weeks old. He went through a period during weeks 2-4 of him sleeping 2-4 hour blocks, waking in between for feeds, but really it was quite a dream as we were both getting about 7 hours sleep ourselves a night.

Over the last 7 days, this has changed. From about 5pm he is just constantly fussing, wanting to breast feed on repeat, and then during the night when you try and put him down, he’ll settle for about 30 minutes, but by the time you are dropping off, he is whinging, throwing his arms around and almost groaning. He’s not crying, but is almost doing all of these actions whilst in a very light sleep, but means that we aren’t sleeping. He just does not seem to enter a deep sleep at night, and only seems to enter this stage when he is sleeping on you; in his carrier; car seat; or, being constantly passed around friends/family at events for cuddles.

We have tried swaddling; letting him sleep on us for 15-20 minutes before putting him down; using a sleepyhead pod (please no negative comments, we are aware of health worker guidance - this is what he slept in before when he slept like a dream); white noise/music; and, a dim light.

I won’t co-sleep as I have to sleep with the duvet up round my shoulders. He is also a very sicky baby so we have to put him to sleep at a slight incline to help.

he does seem to get a lot of wind, but no amount of burping after feeding seems to help, and it can be 45 minutes of fussing before he lets out a big burp. I wonder if this is adding to his stirring.

Have we exhausted all things to try? Please help. I just want to be able to get a couple of chunks of sleep and more than half of the hoovering done during the day lol.

Thanks in advance x

[Millbanks]

Hi lovely, sorry to hear you’ve not had a good night.

I remember in the first 3 months I genuinely couldn’t tell if my little boy was asleep or awake at night. He made SO much noise. Grunting, squealing, squeaking, dinosaur sounds, snuggling, sniffing, leg slamming.

I did just sleep badly for a while, then when I was a bit more confident that he wasn’t actually awake and needing anything I used to put 1 ear plug in to dull the sounds a bit. I could still hear but it wasn’t quite such a raw sound. This meant that I was able to sleep a bit more xx

[CJohns in reply to Millbanks]

Thank you - I wish ear plugs were the answer for me. I’ve slept with them every night since I was 13 years old, so my body is so used to picking up sounds through them. I wear tradesman quality ones now and can still hear every snuffle 🥲!

I just don’t understand the different types of sleep and why he can be so quiet in certain states, but horrendously loud and unsettled in others. When he is unsettled, you know it won’t be long and he’ll start crying, which is why we can’t drop off. Hoping it will just be a matter of time and it will get better🤞🏻 Xx

[Millbanks in reply to CJohns]

It’s probably not hugely helpful but it will get better. People kept telling me that when I was really struggling and I clung on to it like a life raft.

Their bodies just mature by 3 months and digestion / breathing / feeding all become easier. It’s just the way we’re made… we’re not ready to come out at 40 weeks! We need another 3 months inside.

I saw a huge improvement at 12 weeks. In the meantime I would just try to rest when you can in the day. Even 10 mins can be restorative

Xxx

[Twiglet2]

it does sound like wind might be troubling him a bit we had this about this age and we did a lot of bicycle legs and tummy runs before bed, we also found a sleeping bag worked better than a swaddle as he couldn’t wiggle out of that (we got one where you could zip arms in or out we found he preferred out) I think he was maybe a few weeks older than you baby before we used it (but I don’t think much older 🤔) also sometimes we just let him wiggle around for a bit if he wasn’t proper crying and just patted his tummy. Not sure if any of that will help you you might have tried it already 🤗 hope you get back to more sleep soon! Xxxx

[CJohns in reply to Twiglet2]

Thank you for your suggestions! I’ll try the bicycles/tummy rubs!

Funnily enough we tried a thicker tog sleeping bag last night and it worked! I just couldn’t get to sleep as I was constantly waiting for him to stir 😆. Hopefully we’ll have another good night tonight 🙏🏻 Xx