Grunting farm yard baby

[ChefMumToBe]

Our lovely boy is almost 4weeks old and we are desperate for sleep. This is probably really normal but our baby is starting to drive us up the wall!
I had a really good week this week until Thursday night when he turned into something out of the Exorcist meets Farmyard. He kicks and thrashes and scrunched up and looks like he's in miserable pain as he makes the oddest goat/duck/piglet noises. He cries for hours and hours when he's awake and he never seems to get any good rest anymore. In his relatively short life he's gone from being a smooth sleeping comfy baby to an utterly miserable little thrasher.
We've moved him from Aptimal and Infacol to Sma Comfort and Gripe Water.
Only started this today but now I'm worried he may not like to be chopped and changed.
Christ! Motherhood, guilt, worry, sleep deprivation can really screw with a girl's brain.
Help! Any advice welcome

Give the milk chance o guess and see if OT helps. Could it be reflux? If its something different to how he usually is I'd speak to HV tomorrow or pop him onto the GP's

Oh and congratulations xx

Both my DC made the ‘farm’noises at night. They grew out of it by about 10-11 weeks. The grunting is often just their little systems maturing etc.

Thinking of calling the HV but to be honest I've not really gelled with her, she's very VERY opinionated. Kinda rams it down your throats in a none-too-helpful manner. May be im just over sensitive and defensive.
I get very low on Sundays heading into the week while my OH is at work and I'm on duty pretty much alone. I get a couple of hours sleep when he gets in but then it's back on duty for 22hrs and I'm getting no sleep most of those days so think it all probably seems worse than it is! :-/
Not the first woman to feel this, I'm sure won't be the last

Sounds like my ds, he was diagnosed with reflux around 4 weeks old. But he was vomiting his milk back up. Dr prescribed infant gavsivon and ranitidine and we never looked back.

All of my DC had a grunty, piglet phase at about 4-8 weeks. Only one of them had reflux, so I don't think it is related and they had no medical issue pertaining to it otherwise.

Some babies can be made worse by gripe water, ours was. She was on it for 3 days and whilst it helped bring up wind, she was crying constantly, inconsolable at times. I googled it and discovered some babies are sensitive to the ingredients. As soon as we stopped it, she improved.

The noises are completely normal, it wears off at around 2 months old.

I wouldn't change both milk and medicine at the same time, try the comfort milk and no medicine? See how it goes. Then if wind is still a problem introduce infacol again. If no joy then try gripe water. Gripe water made my DS cry a lot, it's a big dose and probably too liquidy rather than a thicker mixture and sometimes caused coughing from going down the wrong hole. It's only to be used from 4 weeks so might still be sensitive to it too.

You shouldn't be 'on duty' 22 hours a day in a partnership especially if you are formula feeding, it can be shared.

We formula feed and have an 8 week old. I go to bed around 9pm and my DH stays up till about 10:30/11 to give a bottle then settle DS to sleep.

I do all night feeds (2 or 3 feeds usually) until around 5:30/6am then DH gets up, feeds and dresses DS, washes and sterilises bottles and other odd jobs. I sleep and have a shower then take over when DH needs to start getting ready for work (8ish).

We both get a reasonable amount of sleep between us, both tired but in no way sleep deprived.

Obviously working patterns and routines may be different in your family but surely he can help out a little more when he isn't at work?

Tiirred, that would be great if it wasn't for the fact my partner gets up at 5:30 and leaves for work at 6am. He does take the nights on Friday and Saturday so I try to catch up then.
All these things will improve as his little digestive system matures hopefully

I don't have any advice, as I've had two babies and one was a terrible sleeper who cried all the time, and the other was a contented little snoozer - I did the same things with both of them, so I think sometimes it's just the luck of the draw.

But I sympathise hugely on the partner's early starts. Mine has always left early for work (heard the door slam as he left a few moments ago), and the idea of having anothet adult around to help in the mornings seems like such luxury!

All I can tell you is with kids, pretty much everything is just a phase, and it will get easier.

Not sure about whether it's reflux etc bit I do know my non- refluxy son made a terrible din at the beginning. I had to sleep with a pillow over my head. As a pp says it just takes time for the gut to mature. Why can't people warm FTMs like us about this in antenatal classes..

4 weeks is shit, 8 weeks much better. I relate to that Sunday feeling.

Google "grunting baby syndrome ".

Look up the symptoms of silent reflux. The screaming could be that. The grunting could also be linked to it but some babies do just grunt.

Out of my two grunters one bad reflux and one didn’t so it isn’t a definite sign of a problem. I slept with earplugs in. It blocked out some of the grunting but I could still hear them when they stirred. They were also in their own rooms earlier than recommended as no one was getting any sleep. It will pass honestly!

My 20 week old did this until she was about 2 months old. I think some of it was trapped wind - winding her really well until I got a decent burp or two seemed to help. Think it is very normal though!

Ps - I slept with earplugs in to take the edge off!

Hi

Completely normal but doesn't make it easier on you :(

If you think he is in pain then take him to the GP and don't worry about the HV.

You are in the really hard bit of first 8 weeks or so - it is survival and you are doing it! You have got through four weeks so you can do it!! It can seem like an endless slog when you are in the thick of it - I understand that, need to draw on any help you can get and do what gets you through

Xx

it is very normal for babies to be exceptionally noisy and grunty during the night. I remember googling the same kind of question with DD.

We used infacol before every feed and made sure we burped DD very well otherwise she would be exactly how you are describing. We used gripe water too if she seemed to be really struggling. I only used one bottle though so the stage she needed it must have passed reasonably quickly, although it didn't feel like it at the time.

Try keeping him as uprightish as much as possible for 30 minutes after a feed and see if that helps?