Straining and groaning in sleep all night

[lendi]

My twins are 7 weeks old and have had quite bad wind since 3 weeks old or so. They are exclusively breastfed and we have tried infacol with feeds with no effect and they are now having gripe water, with some better postfeed burping. Problem is that they are so noisy in their sleep with little straining noises and groans and whimpers throughout their sleeps between feeds. I can't wind them anymore than I already am- taking about half an hr post feed to do it now. I am getting very disturbed sleep in the short time (1.5hrs) between end of one feed/wind and next.
Is this normal?
Any suggestions anyone?
Please give me hope!

I have a 2.5 yo dd and a 14 wo ds. Dd was a silent sleeper(when she did sleep!!) but was terrible at winding. Ds is a champion burper but such a noisey sleeper that he now goes by the name sir grunt-a-lot..... I think it's just normal for him. I've actually started to sleep through it and wake if it goes too quiet! Congratulations on the twins and good luck!

I think it's normal. Both of mine were very groany sleepers as newborns.

They do grow out of it quite quickly though. Not sure when as time has drawn a merciful blank over the finer points of newborn sleep habits.

My ds did this around the same age. I remember it being exhausting. He would constantly groan, strain and scrunch his legs up and down whilst seemingly being asleep. He just didn't seem settled.

Out of desperation I cut dairy out of my diet (he also had eczema so it was for this reason too).

Things did improve. I've no idea whether it was the dairy or not. He's 4 months now and i'm still dairy free. I'm almost afraid to reintroduce it just in case!

Not very helpful for you I'm afraid. It could just be that this is a normal phase that they go through and in a week or two they'll sleep better. Or you could try to keep a food diary to see of you see any correlation.

Thanks everyone, probably part of normal spectrum of baby life then by sound of it. Hopefully they will grow out of it soon as we are hoping to keep them in our room in a cotbed for the recommended 6 months.
Anyway they have been smiling at me lots today so they have forgiven for everything!

All three of mine have been like this, I dont remember it lasting past the Moses basket so 3 months or so and once they dropped a feed it was much less frequent. They were still noisy but it disturbed them less. My dd3 is 4 weeks and we are going through the same again, like another poster said, I am better at sleeping though it and only wake when she wakes up from it and cries properly. The sleeping though it is easier when you're sleep deprived anyway!! I used all the infacol etc with dd1, I didn't bother with dd2 and there was no difference! I just assume it is their digestive system maturing.

I've had the exact same problem with my twins (now 12 weeks). The grunting can be a symptom of reflux, when I spoke to my gp I got a prescription for infant gaviscon, it made a huge difference to one baby. He is now happy and contented at night and is overall much happier! It didn't suit my other baby, but she is definetly improving, so it is something they grow out of in time.

Best of luck with the twins, those first 8 weeks were very very hard! (it gets much easier!)

Thanks, maybe will ask gp about trying gaviscon when we go for their checkup this week.

Had this with DS, I think it's totally normal developmental thing. I was told that in a baby that young discomfort means only one thing - crying, and if a baby was in pain they would not be asleep. It's almost impossible to sleep next to but it's not pain. More just baby testing out noises and movements. Anyway he grew out of it in a few weeks and has never had any digestive issues. 'Grunting baby syndrome' was one thing I looked up

Update- we have had 3 nights of much quieter sleeping thanks to colief. Think they still have immature guys and difficulty digesting lactose in milk so it has helped a lot! Hoping to wean them off it in a few weeks time and see if they are better.