Hi all, this is my first time posting so not sure if I'm doing it in the right place - let me know if there's somewhere more appropriate this thread could go!
10 week old DD was diagnosed with reflux three weeks ago and is now on Ranitidine (0.3ml three times a day). She initially seemed much more settled and in less pain than before, which is obviously great.
However, the last few nights have been really tough. She'll go down in the evening any time between 7.30 and 8.30, falling asleep on us then being transferred to her Moses basket and transferred upstairs to co-sleeper when we go up between 9 and 10. This period of sleep is fine, she makes grunting noises initially but soon settles into a deep sleep. She'll wake any time between 12 and 2am for her next feed (she's ebf) and I'll usually give her a dose of her medicine then. She'll often fall asleep at the breast after feeding, I'll wind her gently and then try to keep her upright for at least 20 minutes (she's asleep all this time).
The problem comes when I try to transfer her back to the co-sleeper. She'll be ok for a few minutes and then starts writhing in what looks like pain, pulling her legs up to her chest, coughing, shouting and giving little cries. It also looks like she's straining to pass wind - she can fart like an old man! Her eyes are closed when this starts but it soon escalates to wide awake crying at which point I'll pick her up to sooth her and she'll settle again on my chest. We've repeated this process a number of times and it stays the same so I've started just letting her sleep on my chest which obviously isn't ideal as I'm not getting any real sleep. She'll be like this from whatever time she wakes up for the night feed until she has her morning feed at 7.30am and we get up for the day.
I've tried a number of things that are meant to help reflux babies - propping up the cot etc - but none of them seem to have helped. She doesn't nap for lop in the day either, up to 45 minutes at often has to be held. She's started getting angry when I put her in the sling (we have an Ergo and a jersey one) so that doesn't help us really. I'd say she has four of this shorter naps in the day and doesn't seem cranky from the lack of sleep.
She hasn't always been like this - in the past she's been reasonably easy to settle back down after her night feed - and I'm starting to feel the strain of the lack of sleep myself, particularly because I can't catch up on it during the day.
Sorry for the rambling post, trying not to drip feed at the same time as working it out in my own head! Does anyone have any advice on what to do to tackle this problem? I'm thinking about giving her comfort milk for this feed to see if this helps. I don't want to move away from breast milk but wonder if the thicker formula might 'sit' better in her stomach at night? OH thinks I'm picking her up to soon and need to give her time to settle herself into sleep and I'm willing to acknowledge that maybe I'm being pfb about her but it genuinely does sound like she's in pain and I'm reluctant to leave her. I'm also wondering if she needs to have her Ranitidine dosage upped a little and am taking her to get weighed on Monday to see if this might be the case.
Anyway, thank you if you've got to the end of this and any help or advice would be greatly received!