Restless baby at night.

[Firefly112]

My 10 week old is starting to get really restless during the night. She generally goes to sleep really well at about 9.30 after her bath and a bottle but after about 2-3 hours sleep she's just really restless. Hands all over the place, head going from side side and whining although she never opens her eyes. I've tried putting a dummy in and stroking her head which works but about half an hour later it's the same thing. I've ended up starting to put her in our bed from around 5am which I didn't really want to do but I'm exhausted! She's a little better once she's in our bed but still not great. I've tried giving her a slightly bigger feed at night as she's finishing her one no problem but she doesn't seem to want it. She's suffered really bad from reflux which Ive had under control now for around 2-3 weeks after endless trips to the doctors so I wonder if this is something to do with it? I have her mattress elevated slightly, I've tried swaddling her and she just breaks free.
Has anyone been through the same thing? Is this just a phase or are there any tricks to help her sleep better? We are both so tired!
Thanks!

Head thrashing is sn over tired sign. She is communicating to you: "I'm really tired but cant get to sleep. Help me go to sleep right now, I'm exhausted".

Have you tried a swaddle? She might fight against it, but that is more of a sign she would be helped by a swaddle. It's to calm the hand flapping and leg kicking. If not, try holding both her hands on one of yours, to stop them flapping around. Likewise a hand on her legs if she's flapping those around. A swaddle does this in a hand-free way for you though.

If she is helped by your cuddles but you'd rather not have her in bed, a compromise is a sidecar cot. You can take one side off most cots/cotbeds and they are stable 3-sided. Then just wedge or lash it to your bed. It means you can cuddle right into the full sized cot.

This is really normal. When baby daughter was a newborn she fidgeted loads and it kept me awake too, but they grow out of it. They're getting used to their little bodies, lots going on. Digestive system is new to them and they're not used to their arms and legs not being contained in your tum as PP says a swaddle might help, my daughter hated them so we just waited till she grew out of it at about 3 months. But I did start to play nice white noise all night, helped her settle but I could also sleep through the fidgeting!

Thank you. I will keep trying with a swaddle. It make sense her being over tired as she barely sleeps during the day. Maybe an hour or 2 but hardly any more than that. No matter what I try. I'm such a light sleeper anyway, now that I have her the slightest little noise wakes me. I do have a white noise machine that settles her when she cries so I could try that during the night to see if that helps.