Fidgety/noisy sleep, help!

[hanflan]

My DD is almost 5 weeks old and her sleep has always been fidgety, she will shuffle around and make loads of noise every 10 minutes or so in her sleep. Recently during the daytime I have been keeping an eye on her and noticed that whenever she is fidgeting she has her eyes wide open! She settles herself back down again no problem, but I am worried that she is not getting good quality sleep, does anyone have any experience of this? It seems like it's getting worse!

If the fidgety, noisy sleep is all of the time, every time she sleeps - then I would worry that baby isn't getting any quality deep sleep.

But to be noisy, fidgety in sleep as baby is trying to get to sleep, or briefly between sleep cycles - this is perfectly normal and OK. Many babies shuffle and grunt in order to get to sleep. If she settle back into a deeper sleep then it is nothing to worry about. You would be better leaving baby alone to re-settle.

If she is unsettle a lot in her sleep, then some help to get into a deeper sleep would help. Have you tried a dummy? Many babies like to suck in order to settle to sleep.

Also a swaddle helps calm fidgeting and helps baby to sleep. Rip a cot blanket in half along the short edge to make two long, thin rectangular swaddle sheets.