Unhappy little newborn at night

[Gobletoffire]

Our darling little DS is 8 days old. I’m breastfeeding and he tends to feed almost non stop from around 11pm-3am. When I settle him enough to put him down he wants to feed again. The last couple of nights have been almost sleepless because he seems to be distressed. He doesn’t crying but moans/murmurs/grunts, kicks his legs around, and is quite red in the face and struggling. It’s like he is constipated but I don’t think he is because his dirty nappies are frequent and normal. I always wind him after a feed but he hardly ever burps. What is this that’s disturbing him? Could it be colic and is it worth trying colic drops?

They're born with a startle reflex and that can cause then to kick out etc swaddling should help but definitely speak to HV about it and congrats on your baby 🙂

I've used colic drops for mine. Think her getting bigger is what's helping her get wind up. There's loads of different techniques too. Have a look online. YouTube have some really good videos/tips

He might just be a suckler? DS2 was either attached to me or crying, until I gave him a dummy. I didn't want to, but at around the 8 day mark I was going out of my mind with it. He sucked on the dummy and happily settled.

I unfortunately didn't breast feed but at 8days old my DS was the same HV said it was normal for the grunting and kicking legs etc he was as the GP put it a 'sucky' baby and the dummy definitely helped or he would have needed bottles 24/7 (he was up to eating every hour at one point). Although he did have silent reflux which started around 3 weeks old. I would give yr HV a ring and see what she says they are great for information and I think my HV and me spoke at least twice a week when he was born lol

I also found swaddling really useful when I had a newborn. I used Velcro ones you can get off Amazon.

This sounds like it's probably wind though. Try to persevere with burping. I used to hold my little one under his chin to support his head and then sort of move his body round in circles.

My little one does this too. She gets very farty in the night and struggles for hours to get them out. Doesn't cry but just squirms and snuffles, We do bicycle legs with her and pumping her knees up to her chest. Doesn't always work though. She usually manages to squeeze it all out at about 7am then passes out for hours!

Wind! Persevere with the winding, maybe try winding half way through a feed as well as at the end. If you think the latch is a bit loose then try to go to a BF centre or ask HV to check latch as he may be taking in lots of air if it isn’t a tight seal.

Also I don’t know what he’s sleeping in but if a moses basket or sleepyhead you could try propping up the head end as this helps get the wind out. It will improve as he gets older anyway.

Swaddling and or dummy may also help - dummy especially as sucking helps things move through the digestive system.

Could be wind. Has your partner had a go at winding? My OH could always get the burps out more effectively that me to start with! Bicycle legs for bottom burps.

He may be suckling for comfort or have silent reflux - does he arch his back? What happens if you don't pick him up, does he settle or start to cry?

My little one had silent reflux and wanted to suckle all day and all night. I gave him a dummy from 14 days which helped enormously with sleep. He would still grizzle in his sleep but he would go back to sleep if I left him. Good luck!

Swaddling worked for us, also they often cluster feed when they’re tiny because they want to boost your milk supply for their growth spurts so the constant feeding may be normal and if so it will settle down. Newborns are very noisy sleepers too, ours made all sorts of grunting and squeaking noises and fidgeted a lot in his sleep at the start.

We had this with our second until I discovered an amazing product called Colic Calm (Google it) which gets the wind out! It completely sorted her out - prior to taking it she just never burped or farted and it caused her so much pain. It's also a natural product, based on charcoal I think.

Definitely persevere with a dummy. And yes make sure all wind is up (or down lol). Walking up and down the stairs helped my DD2.