Such a grunty, groany, whingey Baby!

[sleepymama157]

Our son is almost five months old and he has ALWAYS been a grunter. Whenever he's not getting any attention he just starts grunting and groaning and working up to full scale crying. Day and night. He can sleep soundly. He's done it before. But most nights he rumbles around grunting and groaning and just generally keeping us awake. Its so frustrating and I find it so hard to enjoy spending time with him because he can be smiley and happy one minute (only when I'm giving him my full attention) and the second I stop to do something or see to our older son he starts getting annoyed and the grunting starts. The sound goes right through me and I find it hard not to get annoyed. He isn't hungry, he hasn't got wind, his bum is clean, he gets lots of attention. It just seems like he is never happy for long! My husband and I are still having to do shifts (half a night each) to settle him so we are both getting a decent few hours sleep each. He'll be going to his own room in months time and we are both dreading it as we know we'll both be up and down going through to him all night. Our HV advised us to leave him when he starts gurning to see what he does and if he will self settle. But he just works up until he is full scale crying and we don't want him waking our older son who sleeps great. We gave him a dummy on advice of HV which does work when he keeps it in but he's forever spitting it out then crying for it back, then repeating this. It's so exhausting! I sometimes wish we could fat forward this stage as it's just not enjoyable at all. Then I feel bad! My older son is hardly getting any valuable time with us as even when we do make a point of reading and playing there is always a background noise of grunting and crying 🙄 anyone else had a noisey, fussy baby? 😖

I have one. He is much younger than yours and possibly not quite as unsettled as your ds after reading your description....but you're not alone. If i leave my ds (nearly 8 wo) he will settle himself sometimes......i found white noise really helps, especially at night. However your ds may be a little too old to introduce this now?? Have you tried it? No proper advice but i wanted you to know you're not alone and i hope it passes soon for you. It's really hard isn't it? Try and stay calm as i really do think this can affect baby....easier said than done though. My dh is out tonight so I've got to try and do reading and homework with ds1 and bath and bedtime too....so ds2 will probably be extra grunty!! Hey-ho. It will pass. Quickly i hope.

I have one! Plonk him in front of In the Night Garden in a bouncer while you are doing things with your eldest. It seems to have a sort of hypnotic quality for babies. I know it's not the best solution but sometimes needs must! Can't help with the night waking. Mine's 8 months and still doing it.

My daughter used to do this, particularly between 2-6am (not sure why!).
She was asleep but very noisy! It'll either be wind or reflux. She had both. She grew out of it by 5/6 months. No one could tell me what it was at the time!

Thank you @beckieperk and @Maccapacca88 I'm so glad I'm not alone although obviously it's crap that you both experience it too! Did try white noise a while back but will try again! And will definitely try the bouncer in front of the telly. It is nice to know it's not just my little monster, I really need to try and stop getting so stressed as I do think hell sense it but you're right it's hard! Thanks again :)

@UserThenLotsOfNumbers thanks! He was diagnosed with silent reflux and had Ranitidine for this and is still on Gaviscon so this may be why? It sounds awful but almost wishing the days away until he stops 😔 bad Mum! Xx

Of course you are not a bad mum, you just want your son to feel better. I sympathise completely. My daughter was on ranitidine from 4 - 7 months. Gaviscon constipated her, and you'll see that lots of other parents say it gave their babies digestive issues. Ranitidine worked but we had to fight to get it for her.

Hopefully you'll find the reflux and grunting will improve after he starts solids, and starts crawling and then walking. We were advised to wean at 4 months. We didn't and waited til she was ready at 5 1/2 months. I would say the reflux mostly stopped by 8 months, afteR which she occasionally had small vomits, then from a year she's never sick unless she's ill.

Hope the grunting is over ASAP!