I need help with my puzzle of a DS please!

[narmada]

Some background - DS is now 20 weeks, FF and we are gradually trying to move him over to neocate owing to reflux symptoms that have failed to completely go with a reasonable dose of lansoprazole. He also has slightly poor muscle tone, most pronounced in his trunk.

Our main problem is sleep - he is an absolute nightmare to settle - involves pacing around quite violently, dummy firmly in. He kind of bucks and writhes and kicks his legs when I'm trying to get him to sleep. Putting him down is a complete non-starter as he just gets increasingly agitated and does not sleep - he can stay awake for hours and hours and hours without intervention from us.

When he comes into a light sleep cycle he will start squirming uncontrollably and the only way to still him and keep him asleep for longer than 20 minutes is to get up and repeat the rather intense jiggling. This goes on for all day sleeps ( I try and make sure he has a good morning, afternoon and short tea time nap) and also during his sleeps in the evening slot of 7-11 pm.

At around 11 pm some sort of switch goes and he can finally be put down for the night.

We have had 2 evenings since he was born when he has gone out like a light and slept peacefully from 7. I have racked my brains to think what on earth I did differently but am drawing an utter blank.

Does anyone have any ideas about what could be causing the squirming - aside from reflux/ Cow's milk protein issues - as I am now not completely convinced it is actually either of these things disturbing his sleep.

There are no obvious signs of ill health and he's done this pretty much since he was born.

He is a bit of a puzzle. And bloody exhausting. I would appreciate any thoughts.

he might just be hungry? will he accept a bottle at those times?

it does sound like reflux symptoms to me. or rather, a baby with reflux would often exhibit that type of behaviour. Being laid flat can make the reflux worse, as being upright lessens it somewhat. So you could perhaps try tilting the cot, or having a wedge underneath the mattress to keep his head a little higher?

at 11pm how do you get him to sleep?

oh also, if it is a CMP intolerance that could be making him uncomfortable too.
ds2 had/has it and I had to feed him halfway through his daytime naps to make him stay asleep lol

Thanks thisisyesterday. I'm pretty confident it's not hunger - as have offered him food and he's not interested.

Angling the cot - likewise tried.

Maybe if the neocate doesn't do the trick we need to talk to the paed about increasing his reflux meds or something.

At 11 pm we have to pace, jiggle, dummy him.

Both my 10 week old twins have reflux and no amount of cot angling helped, but they sleep quite well in their bouncy chairs so I put them down in those. ( I know they're meant to be flat etc but sometimes you do what gets you through.)