5 week old baby unsettled for past few days? Advice wanted

[Hannie123]

My little boy is 5 weeks and last night was quite a difficult night to say the least. He usually wakes every 2 hours for a feed and then settles in his own crib. Around 1am he constantly kept waking if we put him down and only found comfort sleeping on me (which was fine as I wanted him to get some sleep). He was quite stuffy and wasn’t drinking because of this.

But this morning he seemed really groggy and unsettled. I went to visit my mum but left early as he wasn’t drinking properly and kept crying. Since being home he’s been drinking he’s normal amount then falling asleep. However, whenever he is awake he’s really unhappy. He just cries and cries until I rock him back to sleep or feed. He’s not usually like this.

He has had some play/alert time today. He also has had a bit of runny poo and I heard bubbly sounds coming from his tummy a few times. Not sure if this is causing it? He’s asleep now and has been for the past hour. I just don’t know what to do and am worried he’ll be up all night crying.. any advice would be appreciated.

He’s also formula fed

You don’t mention how you wind/burp him and if it’s successful fairly quickly or if it takes a while? He sounds gassy. Maybe the formula is disagreeing with him, now that his gut and digestive system is changing. I’ve got a 10 week old and so I’m no expert at all but I’ve learnt to stop using the word ‘usually’ as basically things change with these babies every few days and no 2 weeks are the same.

Sounds like wind to me. My son had this problem - the noises in the tummy are the gasses. Mine really struggled to pass bottom wind so there was a lot of bicycle Kiev's, swinging him on his tummy or laying him on our knees. Eventually the doctor said to use C&G anti reflux milk and we've been prescribed gaviscon ever since.

*kicks not Kiev's 😂

Have you heard of the Wonder Weeks? It's available as a book and an app and charts baby's development stages. Just after 5 weeks is the time of the first leap and this can cause unusual fussiness. It doesn't give you a solution but it can be helpful to know it will be short lived!