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Squirming/gas at 5am

7 replies

OneSecondAfter · 07/03/2017 18:14

Wondering if this is normal and if anyone has any tips. Our DS1 is 12 weeks old. He's falling into a semblance of a sleep routine where he goes to bed between 7/8pm, sleeps til 1/2am at which point he wakes up for a feed, then he sleeps again til around 5am, when he will wake up and spend an hour to an hour and a half squirming, making little sounds (not quite a full grunt, but the sounds of him trying to make an effort, if you see what I mean) and eventually farting a lot. He doesn't cry or seem distressed or in pain. Just discomfort I guess.

The thing is, it always happens early morning (every single day) and never any other time. I feel like he could be sleeping from the 2am feed until 7am (which would obviously be good for him and AMAZING for us!) if he wasn't so uncomfortable with gas! The doctor gave us some probiotic drops but he's been taking that for 4 weeks and it hasn't made any difference.

I've read about it being related to his digestive system needing to develop better, etc. and that it will improve with time, but I'm wondering why it always happens at this specific time? Any ideas? I do find it difficult to burp him after the 2am feed because he always falls back to sleep while feeding and then just won't burp after. We've walked around with him over our shoulders for 20 minutes and he still doesn't burp. Could it be that? Maybe that gas travels down into his gut between 2am and 5am when he wakes up squirming?

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Peopleplease · 07/03/2017 18:43

Breast or bottle fed? If breast fed I really recommend fennel tea (for you obviously). My GP recommended it to me and it really worked. DD finds it so much easier now. She's 10 weeks.

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OneSecondAfter · 07/03/2017 18:49

Breastfed exclusively

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highinthesky · 07/03/2017 18:58

Yep, fennel tea should help to a degree. You could also massage his tum a little in the mornings to help him pop more readily,

I think the cause is likely to be his position during his night feeds. It sounds to me like he's swallowing a lot of air with the feeds. I know you're knackered at that time of night but try to position him in the usual way.

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OneSecondAfter · 07/03/2017 19:02

He eats in the same position as always during the night feed. The only difference from the day is that often he doesn't burp, because he's asleep. Is it worth trying to wake him up properly? A full on wake-up just to burp then go through the effort of making him sleepy again seems like a LOT of work, that's why we've not tried that yet. And I figured that long-term we want to be encouraging this night-time sleepiness, not the opposite?

I do massage his tum, which I think does help, but he still squirms away for over an hour every day. I'll buy some fennel tomorrow and see if that helps. That's a possible remedy I hadn't heard of before.

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Peopleplease · 07/03/2017 19:24

My GP recommended fennel tea first and if that didn't work there was a probiotic (again for you) but as the fennel tea worked for me I can't quite remember the name now.

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highinthesky · 07/03/2017 19:33

Burping him will help so I would try to give it a go. One big burp should do the trick at 12 weeks, and then he should go back down again.

I did this without fail (bottle fed) because I was terrified our LO would aspirate / regurge and choke whilst asleep on her back. Irrational possibly but I wasn't prepared to take any chances.

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OneSecondAfter · 07/03/2017 21:14

I've also read that because babies are generally more relaxed/sleepy at night, they drink a bit slower and take in less air, which may explain why he doesn't burp even after 20 minutes upright on my shoulder. Not sure if that's true or not but it's not like he ever wakes up in pain. I don't even know if trapped air from not burping can go all the way through and turn into wind and discomfort the other end!