Mystery thrashing?

[HenrysHome]

Happy Easter!

Help needed from the mumsnet hive mind for one exhausted mummy. Every night since my little boy was around two months old, he tosses and turns in the early hours (used to be around 4am onwards) and appears to be in a very light sleep. This wasn't so bad when I could try and block it out and doze through it. Now he's six months and gradually the tossing and turning has crept earlier and earlier and has got more and more intense, to the point where he'll wake himself up multiple times a night unless I'm shhhing, patting, cuddling etc.

Last night he started at 10pm, thrashed around until 1 where he woke up despite my best efforts, had a wide awake party until 3 then slept until 5 when he wakes for the day normally anyway. I am EXHAUSTED. Any ideas what's going on? I've already tried:

Extra winding/ probiotics/ dentinox
Dream feeding/ not dream feeding
Bottle in the night/ no bottle in the night
Co-sleeping/ own room/ next to me
Sleeping bag on/off
Different combinations of baby grows and vests to see if he was hot/cold
Early bedtime (5.30) / late bedtime (8)
Dummy/ no dummy
Lots of daytime sleep/ little daytime sleep
Tilted cot/ flat cot
Medicine in the am/lunchtime/pm
Early dinner/ late dinner/big dinner/ small dinner
White noise
Nappy change/ no nappy change
Size up vests/ babygro

He's been on omeprozole for 4 months which we are gradually weaning off (20mg down to 5mg at the moment) and was suspended cmpa but recently passed the milk challenge (formula fed) if that makes any difference.

Any ideas???

[FATEdestiny]

Be consistent with your dummy use, don't sometimes use it and sometimes don't.

Thrashing around is a common symptom of being in a light sleep. So while there are other possible reasons, the most obvious and simplest would be that baby is struggling to get into a deep sleep.

Being over tired and sleep deprived causes restlessness in babies - whereby they struggle to get to sleep and stay asleep because of light sleeping. Perversely, a well rested baby finds it much easier to go to sleep and sleeps more deeply.

So this may be a consequence of daytime sleep routine resulting in being over tired by the night. What's baby's daytime sleep routine like?

Also, how do you get him to sleep?

[ShirleyPhallus]

Is he in the same room as you?

I’d move him in to his own room tbh. My baby is a very active / thrashy sleeper but she doesn’t disturb us if she’s in a different room

At that age we were finding we were waking each other up if in the same room

[HenrysHome]

Hi @FATEdestiny, thanks for your reply. At the moment his routine looks something like this:

Wake around 5.15
Nap 1 around 7 for 30mins to an hour
Nap 2 around 9/9.30 for 1-2 hours
Nap 3 on the go as we are out and about, depends how long he's in the pram/car seat/ sling for
Nap 4 around 4/5 depending on what we've been up to
Asleep in bed around 7

He's fed until he's drowsy and I can put him in his cot and shh/pat/ jiggle the cot (it wobbles slightly) him to sleep.

@ShirleyPhallus, he starts the night in his own room, from bedtime until his dreamfeed/ he wakes for a bottle. He won't settle after that so we usually co sleep from then onwards.

[FATEdestiny]

Does he go to sleep with a dummy?

What happens if you give the dummy when he's restless?

[HenrysHome]

@FATEdestiny sometimes he will sometimes he won't. When he's restless he'll either spit it out right away or it will soothe him for five or so minutes until it starts again with it in.