Restless Sleep in two month old??

[LeaPea]

My daughter is two months old, and she is a very restless sleeper at night. During the day she does okay, but then again she usually takes her naps in my arms or in her swing. At night, she sleeps well for a few hours, then the thrashing begins. She squirms, kicks, swats, and moves all over the place. We used to swaddle her, but she would squirm until she got out of it. Plus, now that she is moving so much, it makes me nervous to swaddle her. We co-sleep right now, but my husband is on the verge of a breakdown due to lack of sleep. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions???

[Knitting Mama]

Cecilia's swaddle is the thing that keeps her from moving around a ton, which she does if she sleep unswaddled. I would try a different type, maybe the velcro kind, to keep it in place. She sleeps in my arms, so I am not concerned about her moving around too much without it waking me up.

[kms7z]

my sons would do that if they had gas or needed to burp. Could you try burping her then laying her back down?

[LeaPea]

My daughter definitely has a lot of gas. We are working on it! Hopefully around the 3 month mark her system will mature more and she won't be so uncomfortable.

I guess I should start swaddling again. I don't have a velcro swaddle, but maybe I will get one. How do you keep your daughter from kicking though?

[Knitting Mama]

I don't, really. The Velcro on SwaddleMe's is pretty strong. She kicks but doesn't kick out of it.

Cecilia definitely had really bad gas the first few months too, and thankfully it's a lot less now at 4 months.

[P.J.]

Hey we're going through a very similar thing here right now too!! DS is 2.5 m.o. and a real thrasher, esp very early in the morning (5am) and I am trying to help him stay calm a bit longer. He also sleeps swaddled, but by morning he's usually broken at least one arm free ~ and we've tried several different ones, plus I do have to re-swaddle him in the middle if the night if he's already out of it by then. I find I do have to completely unswaddle him when he gets really active in the morning though, because he kicks even harder to get out of the swaddle and starts whining until I do. But I have to admit I'm also confused about should I swaddle anymore or not...I've tried leaving one arm out during some naps and noticed he didn't sleep as long.

What I'm trying starting tomorrow is to put him in a co-sleeper sidecar style crib that I just attached to the side of our bed today. He'll go to sleep in our bed and stay there until the pre-dawn thrashing begins and then I'll try to gently move him to the co-sleeper. I'm doing this more in the hopes of getting a little more rest myself as he's been kicking me and from the crib he won't be able to anymore. Although I suspect I'll be awake just the same from all the grunting and movement, but we'll see. I hope to be able to avoid 5am starting our day if possible, fingers crossed! Up til now he's always let me sleep a bit longer, even if he was up, but the thrashing has gotten worse lately making it so hard to fall back asleep. I'll let you know how it goes, and I'm looking forward to other folks' responses.

[P.J.]

Originally Posted by LeaPea

I guess I should start swaddling again. I don't have a velcro swaddle, but maybe I will get one. How do you keep your daughter from kicking though?

I found the Aden & Anais muslin swaddle cloths are big enough that you can leave room for them to kick around in without kicking it off.

[LeaPea]

Anyone else?

[FloridaBorn]

Wow! Are y'all my twins or something?! PJ, I could have written your post. What is it about 5 a.m. that causes all hell to break loose? I even wrote about this in the Nighttime forum, but got no responses.

In short, my daughter (6 weeks) is a WIGGLE WORM.... after 5 a.m.! Actually today I've been up since about 4:30 today because it's impossible to sleep next to her after that.

And YES, she does have some bad gas. Burps and farts like a real pro! DH joked about how she shook the bed last night with all her farting!

[LeaPea]

I'm hoping Luna grows out of it because I am getting no sleep!!! I have tried everything I can think of. We have the same issue. She sleeps really hard for the first half of the night, then all hell breaks loose! It seems like she can't get back into a deep sleep, and I don't know how to help her. I have even picked her up while she was already sleeping and tried to rock her into a deeper sleep. Didn't work!!!

Please let it be a stage!

[HappyMonkey]

I'm doing elimination communication with our little girl, who is almost 8 months. When she starts to thrash in bed, I take her to the bathroom and cue her to go to the bathroom. She almost always does even if she's asleep, then sleeps soundly for a few more hours. I really think it's the full bladder making her sleep less lightly. I used to think the thrashing meant she was waking up and take her downstairs, but she was NOT happy with that, and once she went to the bathroom a few times she wanted to sleep again.

Anyhow try a bathroom break along with burping and maybe that will help!

[Abraisme]

I also agree with swaddling. My DD slept swaddled until 7mo because of this exact same reason. I used a Miracle Blanket and when she grew out of it I made a larger version myself out of flannel. Then one day she simply didn't need it anymore, it was a super easy transition when she was ready.

[Blessed1]

Same thing going on here. My little one is 10weeks and she usually sleeps from 11pm-7am (tightly swaddled with a velcro swaddle blanket).

Just recently around 5am she starts to wiggle, squirm, grunt and I get the idea that she is just uncomfortable. She sleeps in our Arms Reach Co sleeper next to my side of the bed so I constantly watch her during an "episode" of the wiggles to try and figure out what is going on. She almost never breaks out of her swaddle (you have to swaddle with her arms straight down to her sides...if not she WILL break out) and it looks like she tries to at 5am. She kicks and wiggles and grunts and then tries to go back to sleep and then starts again.
What I do now is gently un-velcro her swaddle and almost immediately her arms shoot up over her head and she does a huge stretch and about 7 out of 10 times she poops!! lol Other times she just passes some major gas (without crying) and then she kinda settles down.
I usually get up to do a quick diaper change and I nurse her with little stimulation and and do a quick burp and she falls back asleep ( I re-swaddle her).
Then, around 730am she starts up again. I change her diaper (usually she is just wet) and I put her in bed with me to nurse and we both fall asleep again for a good hour or so... (I love to sleep in!! lol)

I hope this passes too because she use to sleep straight through, but I guess can't complain because we usually get at least 5-6hours of good sleep every night with her little wiggly episodes.
Funny how so many of us are going through it at this age...

I only swaddle at night and I sometimes leave her feet out if it's a warm night.

[LeaPea]

My daughter is still doing this! I am so tired

Any other suggestions?