What do you think is the cause of this fussing at the breast

[RaisingMrC]

Hi,

curious really, as my 14 week old DS has started acting differently during night feeds - we co-sleep and I feed lying down. He has started to move his arms in a windmill type motion and kick his legs. He also keeps latching on, then coming off, then rooting for the breast again. He had been doing this for a few weeks from about 5am, for the last 3-4 days, it has been all night.

In the day he doesn't do the windmilling arms / kicking legs though he does come on and off the breast - in a different way though, more like playing almost, whereas in the night he is insistent to latch back on. He is gaining weight steadily just under 50th centile. He still feeds about every 2 hours, though sometimes goes longer in the day, though not at night, sadly!

I'd like to know why he has changed the night feed behaviour as it's been harder for both of us to get sleep with him fussing. Any advice or suggestions welcome!

He might need a wee. I know it sounds odd but most babies don't wee in their sleep so when they wake up they often need a big wee (if you are wondering i know this because we do ec... )

My ds does exactly the same thing at fiveish. He's clearly hungry but unsettled due to his full bladder. On occasion i have got him up for a wee but he often then wants to stay up so i normally just wait it out till he goes in his nappy. I know that's not how ec is ment to work but sleep is precious! Once his bladder is empty he concentrates on having a feed and goes back to sleep.

IME DS has to be awake to release the second sphincter that lets wee out. Perhaps your ds has developed more awareness off this lately and, being novel, it feels odd and is distracting him. This is complete hypothesis on my part but once we started ec we realised how much fussing was down to weeing!

What ever it is i hope it settles for you soon, no one wants a thrashing around baby in the night! Luckily, babies being as they are he'll probaly change again in a few weeks.

Both mine fussed around that age. I came to the conclusion that it was impatience waiting for the milk to start flowing as they were always hungrier at night.
Is reflux a possibility? This is also worse at night, have you tried lying on your back and putting him on top of you to feed?

What are the signs of reflux? He does sometimes cry when put on his back, but not all the time. And prefers sleeping in arms, not lying down, though he can do so. He does not sick up much either.

This has loads of good info, maybe you will get an answer here. :)

Does he need to burp? My ds also does the coming off the breast but desperate to latch on again thing when he needs a good burp, and he can't get it out while lying down. Often just sitting him up briefly is enough to sort it out.