Newborn grunts and won't settle

[Burtrix7]

Our newborn baby is increasingly finding it difficult to sleep after a feed. He mostly burps very well mid feed and at the end of a feed. He never brings anything up. We try to keep him upright for half an hour after each feed. However for at least two feeds a day he refuses to settle afterwards. He grunts and wriggles in his Moses basket and eventually this ends in a cry. We try picking him back up for more winding but he just gets more distressed. During these periods he remains unsettled until his next feed where he will often sleep from exhaustion I think. We have tried dentinox which seems to help his burping but we still have periods when he is very unsettled.
We are first time parents and finding these episodes exhausting. Is this normal? What are we doing wrong? Is there anything that can help? Also, not sure if it's relevant but he gets hiccups frequently.
Thanks

Very normal. Don't panic!

I never burped DD actually because it seemed to make no difference the times I tried it. Newborns are funny creatures but they do settle eventually.

I'm in the same boat with my DD (5 weeks). I've spoken to loads of people about it as I was worried as well and it seems that newborns are notoriously loud sleepers, and my little one sometimes wakes herself up from her grunting and groaning! The one thing that may be worth trying is lying her in different (safe) positions, for example sometimes if I lay DD on her side she breathes easier, stops grunting and dozes off. Or different swaddles, try arms in/out. I have found the gro-snug has been a little helpful as it provides the comfort of a swaddle without too much restriction, might be worth a go (John Lewis sell them).

Also read up on silent reflux - I'm still pondering if this could be the cause of my DD symptoms... Not sure what can be done but sometimes it's reassuring to know you're not the only one!

Sorry I'm not much help but I am totally with you and feel your pain! (Also watching this thread in case of new advice )

Have you tried feeding him to sleep or rocking to sleep (in arms or in pram) rather than expecting him to go to sleep in his basket?

How long is he awake for - could he be overtired by the time you put him down (newborns can only be awake for c 1hr before becoming overtired - for some newborns it's even less)

Sleepyhead and side lying helped with the grunting and squirming for both of mine.

Mine used to honk like a goose at that age. Googling suggested reflux could be the cause so I propped the head of her moses basket up on A Game Of Thrones which seemed to help, but it could just have been a naturally passing phase. It could also be wind at the bottom end rather than the top - DD was a very farty baby! - so maybe try some gentle tummy massage and leg pedalling?

Thanks for the advice guys. We try to hold him up on our chests to rock him back to sleep but on some occasions he just gets very agitated- head bobbing angrily. we aim to have him back down within the hour but on these occasions fail therefore he becomes overtired. Its like he is trying to bring something up but we only manage to get burps out of him no matter how much winding we do.
People keep saying it gets easier but right now it's just exhausting

DS went through a period of grunting every sleep, sometimes to the point he'd wake up from a couple weeks old , but don't know when it stopped but it has stopped now and he's 18 weeks old. So you'll be pleased to know it doesn't last too long!

Are you breast or bottle feeding? I bottle-feed and found that moving from size 1 to size 2 teats significantly reduced his gas. We also purchased MAM anti-colic bottles at 7 weeks due to colic, but they are good for non-colicy babies too as reduce the amount of air in the bottle that can be swallowed.