I'm sure this has been done to death but I could really use some advice as to if this sounds like silent Reflux, something else or something I'm doing wrong ..it's long, sorry, but I'm getting increasingly upset about not being able to help DS and struggling with lack of sleep myself.....
My DS is 10 weeks old, EBF on demand. His sleeping had been pretty fair for a newborn, going for 3hrs between feeds but over the last 4 weeks he's really struggling overnight. He was previously very colicky, a good few hours of screaming in the evening for the first few weeks, this has stopped now. He still burps and farts a lot and does have a posterior tongue tie that is being snipped next week, this has not affected his weight gain or made me sore but he does gulp air quite a bit. I've ben dairy free for the last 2 weeks to see if this helps any, it's not made any difference!
I can get him down to sleep ok in his bedside crib and for his first sleep of the night he is ok but he wakes himself up grunting, coughing, pulling his face, sucking his hands, arching his back and genrally thrashing about. This starts off really gently and builds up to being really distressed over 10-20 mins, all the while he has his eyes closed and moments where I think he will go back to sleep. I've tried settling him during this to no avail. As soon as I pick him up and hold him upright against my chest he calms. I feed him and he gulps like mad but usually falls asleep again after a few minutes. I'll the wind him and keep him upright for 15mins. He'll be sleeping for all of this.
Sometimes I can put him back into his crib like that and he'll settle fine, sometimes it can take multiple attempts and up to 2 hours to get him back down. After this things go to pot, his periods of sleep reduce through the night till he'll only go for 20min before being distressed and the feeding and settling periods will increase. Tonight he's slept 10pm-2am, up on me from 2am-4am, sleeping and little feeds with 3 failed transfers , slept 4am-5am, he's now sleeping on me but very restless and it's 6.30am. He will nap in the day in his bouncy chair, car seat, sling or flat in the pram if moving. If he's laid flat in the day he'll often get hiccups, blow bubbles and drool lots, occasionally he possets a little.
He's obviously exhausted during the day (and so am I) but after a good sleep he's a happy and relaxed soul. We did try a week of gaviscon from the doctor but it made no difference. The GP was really dismissive about this being silent reflux. My Health Visitor has suggested going back to ask for Ranatidine but I'm sure the GP will be reluctant to offer this after how she was in our previous appointment.
I really feel this isn't normal to be this distressed and uncomfortable and he's not getting enough sleep at all. Is there anything I'm missing? Anything more I can do? Something else this could be? I just want to feel confident going back to the GP as I'm sure she just thinks I'm a nurotic first time mum. 