7week baby thrashing wildly at night - asleep?

[caroline0]

Hi
For about the last 3 or 4 weeks my dd has been trashing about during the night quite wildly and making grunting, almost straining noises. At first I thought she was awake so would try and feed her, but after much watching of her in the middle of the night, I think most of the time she is actually asleep so now I tend to try to ignore it unless she is crying / obviously asking for food.

I just wondered if anyone else had had a wildly thrashing baby and if I am doing the right thing in assuming she is asleep during all the thrashing?

Also, if anyone does have experience of this, will she grow out of it or is there anything i can try to stop her being so agitated. She seems tired in the morning so I'm wondering if this is affecting the quality of her sleep. And yes...this is my first!!

Thanks for any help

One word: swaddling.

Thanks, I'll give it a go!

My DD does this but unfortunately it wakes her up - it has however got milder (she is 9 weeks now) as time has gone on. No tips I am afraid - she hated swaddling. It used to start just as she looked like she was going to sleep. She's still very challenging of an evening but it has calmed down - I think it is just that they can't control their arms at first!!

ill second swaddling .it makes them feel secure.

DD 12 weeks still does this, the thrashing around isn't as bad as it used to be but she still grunts a lot. Luckily it doesn't wake her up everytime as we'd never get any sleep. We tend to ignore the grunts etc and only go to her if she's crying or obviously awake. I think we've just got used to the fact that she's a noisy restless sleeper.

Yes, my DS did this for ages, still does wriggle about a bit but nowhere near so bad. He used to lift his legs then slam them into the mattress as hard as he could, over and over through the night! Incredibly disruptive, esp as he's in a bedside crib.

IIRC, stopped at about four months (though he didn't do it every night up until then, he went through phases of it). Swaddling helped until he got too big for it, baby sleeping bags also seemed to help a bit.

CarolineO - Im so glad that im not the the only one. Ive registered today to find help and advice. My 6 week old does this and its driving me up the wall. Grunting and disco dancing in his basket (nickname husband called it). Have you managed to resolve the issue?

My 4 week old started doing this about a week ago. She normally stays asleep while straining and thrashing her arms and legs about. We thought it was wind as if often ends with a big fart. I'm surprised that other people haven't said it might be wind.
Do you think we may have mis-diagnosed?
We stopped swaddling when it started because she was kicking her way out of it.