What's with the grunting?! Sleep issues

[Truckerdoo]

So, my 91/2 week old sleeps a solid 3-4 hours from around 9 - 1 // 10 -2. It's fantastic!

But after he eats from around 130 - 230, he CANNOT settle back into a deep sleep. For the rest of the night he is squirming, grunting, and thrashing about every 5 or 10 minutes. He is still sort of asleep in this state - i.e., his eyes are closed - but he is SO noisy and threatens to wake himself up fully unless I am pacifying him every 10 freaking minutes.

It is killing me!

It kind of seems like he is trying to pass gas...it also seems like he is trying to wiggle out of his swaddler. He hates it. But when I take him out of it he wakes up fully, with eyes open, so that can't be good.

How do I deal with this and get him to sleep as soundly during the 2nd night as the first?

[Tattooed Hand]

That's rough. R does this sometimes too (last night being a prime example). I often nurse her and it helps her pass the poop or gas or whatever is going on. I've never been able to swaddle her since she hates it, but I do snuggle her close and sleep with a hand on her which seems to usually calm her.

that said, she squirmed from 5-7 intermittently last night, at which point I foistered her on her dad.

[beep]

Mine usually screams from 1-3 or 2-4, and we can't figure out why. Nothing really seems to help, so we have half given up and usually (after nursing, diaper change, clothing check, etc.) just end up dozing while holding our rigid, bright-red-faced, tear-streaked, howling boy until he wears himself out. It's very hard on all of us.

[evinmom]

Originally Posted by beep

Mine usually screams from 1-3 or 2-4, and we can't figure out why. Nothing really seems to help, so we have half given up and usually (after nursing, diaper change, clothing check, etc.) just end up dozing while holding our rigid, bright-red-faced, tear-streaked, howling boy until he wears himself out. It's very hard on all of us.

That sounds like our DD as a baby. It is amazing what you can learn to sleep to when you are really sleep deprived.

[Adasmommy]

Maybe the swaddle isn't tight enough? If dd's isn't tight enough it makes her mad. I can't get it tight enough to hold her arms securely with a blanket--I have to use the miracle blanket.

[ears73]

I just had my first EC catch yesterday - my little guy does the squirm too, though not exactly as yours sounds, and I am trying to figure out what it is... Mine is more like a partial-nursing squirm where he just won't or can't finish his meal. I decided to grab a bowl and have it handy. He pees straight away then settles down. A long shot, but perhaps he wants to no go in a diaper?
I know how hard it is to deal w/no sleep - hope this stage passes quick!

[evinmom]

Originally Posted by ears73

I just had my first EC catch yesterday - my little guy does the squirm too, though not exactly as yours sounds, and I am trying to figure out what it is... Mine is more like a partial-nursing squirm where he just won't or can't finish his meal. I decided to grab a bowl and have it handy. He pees straight away then settles down. A long shot, but perhaps he wants to no go in a diaper?
I know how hard it is to deal w/no sleep - hope this stage passes quick!

Yay!!! How exciting!

Everett is like that. When he's fussy at the breast or won't go back to sleep in the middle of the night, chances are he has to pee or poop. This occurred at 3:41 am today. After a couple of minutes of him not settling back to sleep, I put him on the potty and he had a huge poop. I keep the little potty right next to the bed. I made some fleece covers for it so it isn't cold for him to sit on.

[yentroc]

We do the same thing as the OP... a good restful sleep (most nights) of 3-4 hrs and then after that next feeding, lots of squirming and grunting until morning.

I just talked to a friend of mine who had a baby two weeks before me and he is doing the same thing as well!

[Truckerdoo]

I tried something last night to avoid the 2nd-half-of-night grunting and had fantastic success!

After feeding/changing him, I put him in his swing to sleep. I almost never do that. But I figured maybe the rocking would distract him from the grunting. I was hoping to get 30, 45 mins out of this....and instead got 3 HOURS!

I'm going to try it again tonight! I know well enough by now never to expect what worked once to work again...but here's hoping!

So maybe to you guys dealing with grunters out there...try doing the swing for the latter half of the night?

[evinmom]

Yay! Glad it worked!

I have seriously considered buying a swing. Of course like everything else, by the time I get around to it, Everett will be too big. LOL

[justmandy]

Levi does this too! I can usually get him to sleep if I'm holding him tight. He stays swaddledbut seems to need more that second part of the night.

I just keep thinking "Poop, already and we'll all feel better!" (I don't want to EC and dh is way not into it.)