silent reflux night sleep

[shellbell1]

hi all
my 4 month old baby girl was diagnosed with reflux when she was a month old. She has been on treatment ever since after several referrals to the hospital etc as she was constantly crying in pain. Things have now settled down but her sleeping pattern at night it all over the place. It has never been particulary good since day one but there was a time she would sleep through the night only waking once or twice and now she just seems to wake up all the time during the night. We've raised the mattress and we keep her up after her feeds etc but nothing seems to help during the night. She hasn't had a night feed for about 2 months now (due to reflux related issues) and she is on 7oz every 4 hours during the day and her last feed is 9pm. We have a bedtime routine and everything and she is put to bed in her cot awake and self settles everytime.

I just wanted to know if anyone else has had similar experiences and if their babies started to settle during the night eventually and if weaning helped at all? Me and the hubby are pretty shattered and sometimes have to take turns sleeping on the sofa a couple of times a week just to get a decent nights sleep. It seems to me that her stomach plays up during the night which is what disturbs her sleep. We keep her upright after feeds, raise her mattress, give her lansoprazole and the correct dosage according to her weight but nothing seems to be making a difference to the night sleep. She doesn't appear to be hungry because we tried to reinstate the night feed but she just use to fall back asleep after a couple of sucks. Her eyes are still closed when she wakes, she moves around a bit, gives a little grimace/cry and we put the dummy in or comfort her when she falls back asleep only to wake again half an hour later! Any advice/comments would be great!

Sorry for the massive essay :-)

The sleeping thing may be completely unrelated to the reflux - it is really, really common for babies who have slept well to suddenly sleep awfully at around the 4 month mark. It's sometimes known as the 4-month sleep regression.

Does she rely on a dummy to go to sleep in the first place? If so, she may be wakening when it drops out and then she can't find it again? Just an idea. They do turn into very habitual creatures, babies.

Sympathies - it will get easier.

i thought that 2 that it could be her age or teething. she does have a dummy to go to sleep with and i think it could be that also. Hopefully it will pass when she gets a bit older, fingers crossed :-)

Thanks x

Aha. IME there is a difficult period for babies who use dummies, inbetween when they become habituated to them (usually around 3-4 months) and when they can find and replace them themselves (usually around 6-7 months).

Gird your loins and it will pass! Painful in the interim tho.

I can honestly say that my 2 have been completely unbothered by teething but I know that's not everyone's experience.

I have had two reflux babies and both of their sleep has been poor especially at 4 months. Dd, the youngest is nearly 5 months so not better yet, but ds's sleep improved dramatically around 6 months when he started to sleep on his tummy.

Do watch out though for reflux signs. At 4 months both of mine had big growth spurts where they took more milk and grew quite a bit. They both needed their medication rechecked. I need to sort DD's again as she's showing reflux signs again.

Thanks narmada, it is hard because my first one was the "perfect baby" so I am at a bit of a loss with this one lol. I'll perservere and hold onto the fact that it should pass, i'm going to try and lose the dummy and maybe replace it with a sleep blanket (the safe ones that you can buy) or a soft cuddly toy to see if there is any change. She doesn't seem particulary miserable during the day, she does have the red cheeks and is dribbling alot but isn't grisely at all so thinking about it i don't think it is teeth. Could be the 4 month sleep regression or reflux, just hate not knowing what to do for the best for her :-( I'll keep an eye on he meds Iggly to ensure the weight is correct according to the dosage.

thanks for the advice all, really helps to try new things :-)