7 week old unsettled during the day

[Mazzimaz2709]

Hello, first time mum here of a lovely 7 week old baby girl :-) I've just spent the last 45 mins reading lots of previous posts on sleep/routines before deciding to post my own. I have been toying with the idea of implementing a day time routine, as for the last 2 weeks my little girl has become increasingly difficult to settle during the day.

We are quite lucky in that once settled at night for bed (takes a couple of hours after bath etc) she sleeps well and wakes every 2.5-4 hours for a feed and goes straight back to sleep. She is exclusively breast fed and I spend a minute "winding" her although she doesn't ever burp after night time feeds.

Skip forward to day time feeds, she always needs more time to be winded and brings up a burp or more often than not is actually sick. She gets cranky very quickly and it feels like she feeds every hour or so. She also spends a lot of time straining to the point it makes her cry until she has an explosive poo (usually only once I have taken off her nappy to let her stretch out!) Sometimes she gets hiccups when lying down for her nappy change after a feed which also leads to her being sick, especially when putting her down for a nap.

This hourly feeding followed by crying/burping/being sick pattern repeats for the rest of the day but the crying intensifies to the point where by 5pm she will only be comforted/settled by suckling on the breast. Sometimes she feeds, but mostly she just suckles and dozes. When I then try to sit her up to wind her, the crying/screaming continues even after a burp!

I will also add that she smiles and laughs when I interact/sing to her. She also loves her bouncy vibrating chair and being held over my shoulder so she can look around. BUT her tolerance for these things is 10 mins max when she suddenly goes red and screams!! My thought here is she gets over stimulated and then perhaps overtired??

Any thoughts on why she is more windy/sick during the day? I try not to handle her unnecessarily boy obviously more nappy changes during the day are unavoidable.

Do you think a day time routine would help prevent her from becoming overstimulated or overtired? What signs should I be looking out for? She seems to flip like a switch from being smiley and happy to screaming until she is red in the face!

Thanks in advance :-)

I am not sure this is over stimulation - I wonder about reflux which is causing over tiredness (and then the over tiredness is creating it's own problems).

It could be that all of the extra sucking in the day for comfort may be giving her wind. Then the wind might be causing reflux (which is when stomach acid goes up the gullet, causing a burning pain) which makes her cry. Reflux pain often goes alongside hiccups, posseting (little bits of sick after a feed), vomiting and burping is babies who suffer.

I understand one simple recommendation for babies who suffer reflux is to use a dummy. The sucking motion calms and soothes the stomach acid and also using a dummy rather than the nipple stops extra milk/air being taken in when baby isn't actually hungry but instead just wants to suck.

I am not sure a routine would help you so much with the reflux. But getting into regular daytime sleep and feed habits is useful in the long run. The EASY (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) routine is a simple baby-led structure to your day.

Thank you fatedestiny! The HV mentioned reflux before but in a way that all babies have it to an extent and as long as I raised her cot at one end it would help.

What you have said makes total sense re. the suckling and bringing in air as this only happens during the day! I have a dummy so keen to try this now (she occasionally sucks her thumb or fingers when she finds them!)

Also happy you mentioned easy routine as this is exactly what I am trying today. It is all too easy to offer her the breast when she cries, although not hungry so just suckles and then adding to the problem. This morning I noticed her yawning about 1 hour or so after feed, change an a play so I spent 15 mins shushing her to sleep on her bouncer. She has been napping now for over an hour without feeding her to sleep so I am happy with this! The next problem is letting her nap in her bouncer...

Thanks for this though, totally makes sense and will try the dummy ?xxx

purplecrying.info/what-is-the-period-of-purple-crying.php

Have you tried/looked into tummy massage.

Will help work the gas through her guts and make her more comfortable.

Lots of YouTube videos on how to do it.

If it helps op my 7 week old dc4 settles like yours at night but day time he takes ages to wind and seems to be permanently attached to my breasts at the moment, but he does not have reflux. If I put him down he screams blue murder till I pick him up, he just likes to be held when he's awake, he has just fallen asleep now after being awake since7am and it's now midday......my first dc was the same the other two were far more independent preferring their bouncers to being held. (Am having snuggles with dc3 now whilst grumpalot sleeps :))

Tbh this all sounds perfectly normal to me! Babies stop being able to tune out external stimuli around 5/6 weeks and find it harder to 'wind down' during the day. It's the end of the newborn honeymoon where they can sleep anywhere and everywhere! This can lead to overtiredness if you don't get them back to sleep at first sign of tiredness. I used a sling from this point on for day naps for my dcs. From about 3/4 months i then switched to a sort of routine where all naps take place in dark room with white noise.

A lot of babies also shorten their nap length around this time too as they are unable to transition into 2nd sleep cycle. All normal but totally frustrating! Just means they will need shorter awake time and more naps.

Thanks everybody. So far today has gone well with a 1.5 hour nap (after play, not fed to sleep - so a real change in our normal "routine"!) followed by a nappy change, feed and short period of happy awake time laughing and smilinng. After about 45 mins of this I noticed her yawning again and starting to get a bit whiney. So I took her through to her bouncer chair and played the white noise app, and she has now drifted into another sleep! i am considering getting a reclining bouncer to aid a safer sleep if she is going to nap for longer than 20 mins or so.

So far so good! I think I have been guilty of putting her to the breast when she cries instead of reading the tired signals :-(

Oh and thank you @nowthereistwo I have just googled some videos and definitely worth trying some of these. She has dry skin on her legs and loves the few minutes of massaging the cream into her legs so not sure why i didn't think of looking into tummy massage!!

Please read up on silent reflux

Eminado I was going to say exactly that. The hiccups and unsettledness sound very familiar. Go to your GP though as the HVs can just say that unless they're screaming when they're sick, it's not that like mine did

From experience, I can remember DS wanting to suckle as I think it helped his little tummy but he wasn't actually hungry anymore.

Thanks for advice on silent reflux. It had crossed my mind before however she is gaining weight (plenty - she is in the 91st percentile! A big baby girl!!) and doesn't seem to have any other symptoms. When she is sick though, I'm not sure of the amount she is bringing up (dribbles with White bits!) is just possetting or actual vomit.

I think it makes sense that constant comfort sucking is causing her to bring in too much air and causing her discomfort during the day!

Am having very similar issues with my DS who turns 12 weeks this Friday. He has always been a rather irritable baby, and has a habit of wanting to feed none stop. The HV didn't seem to question this as I'm BF'ing on demand. I can't seem to lay him down without him crying, when I feed him I can hear his stomach making rumbling sounds, his poo's are pretty explosive, and he always seem to be having hiccups. I am being told these are all the signs of silent reflux

If he does have reflux what can be done about this? Any advice would be great!

There's medication for reflux starting with gaviscon. Go to the gp

My baby was a 92nd percentile baby and had silent reflux.

Please tilt cot, hold baby upright after feeds and go to the GP. Meds were a revealation for us.

I went to the GP yesterday however he was very quick to dismiss silent reflux as in his words out baby is 'thriving' he was saying between 3-6 months this is normal. I persuaded him to let us try some medication etc. Day one, a little improvement, still a little irritable and explosive nappies! Will keep upright after feeds and tilt cot and see if this helps! Thank you

Well done hunter sometimes you have to advocate for your baby with hcp

Has anyone tried gripe water? Is this similar to baby gaviscon or am I completed confused?

Gripe water is different. Think it contains dill and fennel which help with wind and to relax gastrointestinal tract.