11 week baby - unsettled after early morning feed

[Laulau2]

Hi - I have an 11 week old baby who is doing great - happy and content and sleeps pretty well, so I’m not complaining just looking for some tips / advice from anyone who may have experienced this….

At the minute, our routine is she contact sleeps with us on the sofa from about 7.30-9pm, we then take her up to get ready for bed (quick bath, PJs, feed) and she’s usually soundly asleep in her next to me cot by 10-10.30pm. She then sleeps through until 4 - 4.30am ish :) She wakes up then very hungry and wants a good feed - and from this point on she is very unsettled. She wants to continue to sleep (her eyes are closed and she’s trying to sleep) but she just wriggles and squirms and grunts until we then both have to get up at 6.30am for my 6 year old. After the 4am feed I give a good amount of time trying to burp her - but she never seems to burp after this particular feed (she does at other feeds) - I also hold her upright on my chest for 20 mins as she does suffer slightly from reflux I think. I think she’s uncomfortable with digestion / processing the feed on an empty stomach … but I don’t know what else I can do to help her feel more comfortable. Any ideas?

Thank you.

That sounds really normal! (Unfortunately because I know how hard it is!) They call it the farmyard hours because of the noises they make. It’ll pass as she gets older and her digestive system develops.

Sounds like wind. Can you try infacol with the 4am feed?

Another one to say the farmyard hour- have a google!

Thanks everyone. That’s interesting re farmyard hour!! It’s exactly like that! So I assume as long as she isn’t crying (which she hasn’t been), then it’s best just to leave be and let her snooze / squirm /wriggle!!!

@lucya66 do you find Infacol works just giving it on odd feeds? The reason I haven’t bothered with it (despite her getting a bit of trapped wind), is because my HV said it was only effective if it was used on every single feed, without exception! And being breastfed and a snacker, I just felt that wouldn’t be feasible. But if you think it works just giving it on odd feeds then maybe I should give it a go just for the night feeds?

@Laulau2 no I don’t think the hv is correct in my experience. I only give infacol around 5pm feed and I ebf on demand, so feeds are short and sporadic. I give it around then as that’s when she gets gassy and fussy with wind. The one evening I forgot to give it, she screamed for hours with wind :(

My daughters reflux and allergies started with her being unsettled after her 2 am feed. This was at 10days though by 18 weeks this was all day every day. It was around 10weeks that she picked up the unsettledness and became more troubled by her silent reflux and developed a feeding aversion with most of her feeds and at one point wasn't feeding for more than a few seconds at a time during the day.

@lucya66 ah that’s interesting. I’ll give it a go in the evenings / nighttime then. Thanks for the tip

@Superscientist oh no, that sounds really tough. How did you manage the silent reflux? I think mine suffers a little from it - although hasn’t turned into anything too severe…. Yet!! 😬

Unfortunately my daughters reflux has been a bit tricky to keep managed and she's still got fairly severe reflux aged 3 and is now under 2 paediatricians for it!

We keep it managed with high dose omperazole, domperidone and gaviscon and keeping all 20 of her allergens out of her diet.

The first step is usually a thickener like gaviscon but this can cause constipation and when my daughter was little we had to use lactulose to soften her stools. The next step is omperazole. For us we had little benefit until it was at the top dose and needed gaviscon too.

Baby sleeping 10-4am for SIX hours at just eleven weeks is amazing. What’s your secret.

Farmyard hour! I’m so glad it has a name. We christened it ‘goblin mode’.

Our routine is pretty much identical to yours and that middle of the night feed was always touch and go for settling.

It seems to have just sorted itself out this week, and she’s been much calmer. We’ve done absolutely nothing differently I’m afraid!

@Flatdog ive no idea!! I think we just got lucky… yesterday she slept 9.30-5.30 😱!
She eats loads during the day which I think must help 🤷‍♀️… she doesn’t nap amazing in the day, just contact naps and in the pram, so I worry she’ll get overtired but seems to just save up the zzz’s for nighttime!

@Mushroo thats great yours is sorting out a bit, how old is your little one? Maybe it’s just a time thing - I’m sure it’s digestion for us, probably just needs to mature more 🤞

@Laulau2 shes 11 weeks so hopefully it’s not too much longer for you!

One thing Ive just thought is that our LO had a tongue tie, which was sorted out last week. Might be a coincidence but she seems a bit more settled after that.

Her tongue tie really wasn’t obvious other than I had some discomfort feeding. So just something that might be worth checking.

@Mushroo yes interestingly she had a tongue tie division done the Wednesday just gone. I also had no idea she had one either (and apparently it was quite severe!!) No major change yet but the practitioner did say it can take 2 weeks to see improvements as they have to relearn to use their tongue again… so hopefully that might help too. Crazy how many kids seem to be affected by tongue tie!!