Thrashing and grunting after long stretch of sleep

[rzberrymom]

I'm really new to this, so I hope it hasn't been asked a hundred times! My DD is 8 weeks old, and she sleeps like a champ for the first 5-6 hours at night. Then she nurses, and then spends the next 2 hours thrashing, straining, and grunting before waking up all the way and wanting to nurse again. And then she repeats the thrashing again.

- Is this likely because she has to pee?

- Can I EC her *only* at night? Or will she not know what to do when I put her on the potty because we haven't been doing it during the day? I have caught several poops in the potty during the day, but that has been pretty easy. I'm not sure I want to do this full-time though, and I really just want to find a way to help her go at night and then sleep more comfortably.

- Does anyone swaddle and EC at night? She needs to be swaddled in order to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time--do you un-swaddle them and then hold them over the potty? Or keep the arms swaddled but try to uncover them from the bottom? I'm thinking she might not release if swaddled, but she starts screaming usually if I un-swaddle her (thus waking up my co-sleeping DH and 4-year old).

Thanks!!

[marija_jane]

I can't respond on the swaddling part, having no recollection of what I did when my son was that little (although I think he hated being swaddled) but you can EC only part-time, and responding to her signals at night is probably going to get you all more sleep from what you describe. I found that when I would take my son to pee it would eliminate an hour of nursing followed by more tossing & turning until he would eventually pee and then be able to sleep again. I also found that nursing him through the pottying kept him happy, half-asleep, and of course, quiet! If you use a plastic potty be sure to use a diaper or a potty cover or the cold plastic will really wake her up. You can also just pee her into an open diaper, which may be easier to deal with. This is one thing that I will really do differently with any future kids-- I was trying too hard to have the night time pottying be into the BBLP and it was very frustrating and complicated for me. If you aren't sure that she will "know" what to do, you can concentrate on teaching her a cue sound, by making the cue sound every time she eliminates (even into a diaper) and she will quickly get the association. But I think if she needs to go she will "know" just by you taking her diaper off. I'm a firm believer that babies understand a lot more than we give them credit for.