11 & half week old hard to wake up at night

[Mumlean]

Hello,

Really looking for some advice here. My LO is 11 & half weeks old. Since this weekend my LO has came down with a cough. It’s progressed to being very light to now very chesty & coughing spells every hour as well as being wheezy & sneezing. The past 3 night he’s also been very difficult to wake up to feed after going down for the night. He’s never ever been like this, nothing seems to wake him up. I took him to my GP twice & he said all his vitals are fine but couldn’t give me an answer to him coughing/sneezing & being hard to wake up in the night.

It’s not like baby isn’t sleeping during the day either, he’s sleeping a lot throughout the day and is cranky all the time when awake and doesn’t want to play/do anything like tummy time. He’s not cooing at all like his was either, the coos he’s letting out now sound more like a painful cry??

Am I really just putting this all in my head? Is this really that normal?

Also he is feeding fine when awake, I’m just worried because my LO isn’t himself at all and I’m being made to look like I’m just being paranoid.

Can I ask why are you waking him? Is there a medical need? Has a doctor/ midwife told you to wake him for feeds? Has he reached his birth weight?

Is he otherwise ok? Plenty of wet and dirty nappies?

It’s awful when they are ill but really (IMO) if he has reached his birth weight and there is no medical reason to wake him then let him sleep. The majority of babies will wake if they need a feed. Some people do dream feeds, where you feed them whilst they are asleep but I never bothered.

As for the cough, unfortunately it happens. If he is otherwise ok with plenty of wet/ dirty nappies then there isn’t an awful lot you can do. Unfortunately babies have very tiny airways so even if they aren’t coughing and sneezing their breathing often sounds horrendous. No one warns you how scary a babies breathing sounds.

Just keep an eye on him, but he probably is perfectly fine.

Also, as he gets older he will be more alert, this can come with increase fussing. Also, another one to consider is wind, some babies can be very tough to wind. Or they may have reflux.

Why are you waking him in the night? Unless there’s a medical reason why not just let him wake when he needs to feed? My eldest was sleeping through the night from 6 weeks.

Probably should of worded it better, but he’s going down at around 7pm and hasn’t been awake still by 7am so I’ve woken him as surely after 10-12 hours he should be awaking?? He’s sleeping constantly throughout the day too, waking up only to feed & be extremely cranky.

He was playful & cooing like crazy just last week - now I can’t even get him to coo or play at all aside from when he does a single painful sounding coo after he’s coughed

It sounds like he has a nasty cold, but nothing more serious? I’m grumpy and sleepy and not playful when I’m feeling ill too. Why do you think it’s something worse?

If he’s feeling unwell I would let him sleep it off.
Vicks on the soles on his feet will help him breath.

As others have said, he’s probably fine but if you’re not happy you can always pop to a + e, where he can be seen by a paediatrician rather than the gp. They’ll give a really thorough check and it might make you feel better?