Baby wriggling all night

[Splinters]

7wo dd 'sleeps' in a moses basket next to my side of the bed. I feed her in the dark about 11pm, then wrap her in her blanket and put her down, and she doesn't cry again until the morning. I wake up and feed her again about 3am (can't get away without changing her nappy either) and again she doesn't cry -- but almost all night she seems to wriggling and squirming and grunting. She startles a lot in her sleep, but she will not have her arms wrapped up (I managed it last night, but she was out pretty quickly, and when I tried again after the night feed she squawked until I let her out).

DH and I mostly manage to sleep through the wriggles and grunts, except for when I naturally wake to feed her -- I'm more concerned that it's stressful/distressing for her to be squirming all night in her basket. The only place she really sleeps soundly is in her sling, but obviously that won't do for the night! Anyone have any thoughts, especially about whether this is ok and not stressing her out too much? Thanks!

I think lots of babies do this and it's just when they're in the less deep phase of sleep. I read that from about 8 weeks, when they start to need a proper night's sleep, they have shorter times of this and longer times of deep sleep, when they tend to be very quiet and not move at all (and if you're like me you have to stare at them and touch them to make sure they're still breathing!). I read something on another thread about the deeper sleep happening earlier in the night, so your DD might still be like this later on.
My son was so noisy and thrashed about so much that we had to put him in his own room at 3 months because I just couldn't sleep. He did have reflux though so that might have been bothering him, but if your DD is otherwise contented then I wouldn't worry about it.
Are you feeding your DD even though she's not woken up? I'm guessing here, but if she doesn't need to feed then perhaps this is disturbing her and causing her to not sleep as soundly for a while after each feed. Sorry if I've misunderstood.

Dd was like this, I think it was a combination of lighter sleep after about 1/2/3 am and wind bothering her. winding her really well after night feeds helped a bit (takes ages though) so did putting her on her side and with Moses basket tilted a bit.

but the only thing that really helped was letting her sleep on my chest, she slept much more soundly there. she grew out of it by about 16 weeks/10 weeks corrected.

Thanks both. If I wake up and she's quietly asleep I don't wake her up, but if she's squirming I do, even if if looks like she's actually asleep. I do think there are nights with more squirming than others, and the days after are less pleasant for both of us!

Last night I tried co-sleeping on the spare bed for part of the night, but I couldn't get her still even then, so I'm thinking it's not the fact that I'm not there in the basket with her that's causing distress. Looking forward to her growing out of it in due course!

yes, co sleeping didn't work, she had to be on my chest... think it was the tummy down position plus warmth that helped with her wind. her lying next to me did nothing.

good luck...