my wiggly baby keeps me up all night long!

[tanyato]

my 4 month old is such a loud sleeper! I enjoy co sleeping for all it's regluar perks (nursing in bed etc) but i am now realizing that being woken up at least once an hour all night long is just not good for my mental and physical health. DS is a "good" sleeper in the sense that HE sleeps all night long. it's actually hard to wake him up! but he grunts, moves, jerks his arms (he gets them out of a swaddle too), kicks his legs, snorts and even snores. all night. every night. I've tried all kinds of things - extra burping (in case it's gas), pumping his legs (in case he needs to poop), making sure he's swaddled after each feeding, I'm even on an elimination diet to see if it's food allergies giving him an upset tummy! (there have been NO improvements since going on the diet last week).

I'm thinking I just have a noisy sleeper! Sometimes I put him in a little bouncy chair next to the bed to see if i can sleep better without his movements waking me up but he still keeps me up with his noises. what do i dooooo????????????

anyone else have this problem?

[MarineWife]

I can't offer any help, just commiseration. I'm co-sleeping/bedsharing with my 4th baby. All the others were relatively easy to sleep with. This guy, not so much. He's 7 months old now and squirms all night long even though he's not really awake and it wakes me up/keeps me up. I love bedsharing, though, and the thought of putting him somewhere else to sleep makes me sad. My 4yo just recently started sleeping in another room with his daddy and that makes me sad because I miss him.

I was going to suggest a co-sleeper attachment for your bed but I guess that won't work if you've already tried him in something else and he's still too noisy.

[MrsGregory]

Mine kicks.  I curl my body around hers and she uses my belly and thighs like a trampoline.  As we drift off she likes to have a breast out for nursing, and no part of my body touching hers except for her feet to reach me to kick kick kick.  I've moved her farther away but she wails pitifully until she's closer.  Once she's asleep - and I know she's asleep because the vigorous kicking stops - she inches and rolls closer to me and we spend the night snuggled.  Which I love.  Hang in there Mama! 

[dyani]

i have the same problem with my 4 month old!  he kicks, squirms & grunts all night.  i have tried putting him in his cradle (right next to the bed) but he won't stay in there all night.  its impossible to swaddle him anymore.  i end up feeding him when he won't settle down, but he eats for a minute or two then passes out for a bit, then the wiggling starts again!  i really hope he grows out of this!  please let me know if you find any solutions to this!

[Super~Single~Mama]

Those who have kicking kiddos - are their diapers too small? My ds doesn't move around very much at night, but then I accidently bought him pull ups a size too small a few weeks back, and the kicking was unbearable!! When I realized my mistake and got the right size, he stopped again. So, maybe they are wearing uncomfy diapers?

[tanyato]

glad to hear some responses! :)

it's been a couple weeks since I started this post and i feel like my baby has improved. there've been a few wonderful nights in the last two weeks so i'm thinking it's from a combination of:
 

• burping him after i feed him (when he just  comfort nurses for a minute i don't bother, but when he has a real good long feed i make myself sit up in bed and burp him for a minute)
• not eating dairy in any way, shape or form (i'm 99% sure he's sensitive to it)
• using my husband more at night (sometimes i'll have him burp him and put him down in between us and baby seems to settle in for longer periods of sleep than if he's just dozing next to my boob)
• changing his diaper in the middle of the night (i've really noticed that he gets extra wiggly when his diaper is soaked and settles down again after i finally give in and change him into a dry one).
• just "letting it go" and realizing that he's a baby and babies wiggle and it's inevitable that he'll keep me up at night for a while.

[dyani]

funny that you mention dairy...i have been off dairy since he was 6 weeks & decided to reintroduce it this weekend.  i had yogurt & a little cheese & last night was the worst yet!  he's also been super fussy all day today.  i guess i'll have to stay dairy free for now. we'll see how tonight goes!

[greencrunchymom]

Crazy woggly babies- don't they know we're not getting sleep when they do that? I hope mine doesn't get too wiggly.  I would stop co sleeping if it wasn't working for both of us.

[MarineWife]

Originally Posted by greencrunchymom 

I would stop co sleeping if it wasn't working for both of us.

Here's the thing, though. What if not co-sleeping means that baby is awake crying all night? Which is worse, a wiggly but otherwise asleep baby or an awake baby who is screaming?

I've co-slept with 4 babies, and no matter the problem, co-sleeping has always been easier than the alternative.

[alittlesandy]

We had this problem with DS when he was around four months old, so just as an experiment I put him in a crib pulled up next to the bed. It made a huge difference and he slept there until he was fifteen-months-old and transitioned to his own room. Even now, at age three, he doesn't sleep well in a bed with others. Sometimes I bring him to bed with me, or he'll sleep with us when we travel, and he'll kick and wiggle and push at me in his sleep. He sleeps extremely soundly on his own and always has. All kids are different.