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6 week old waking 5am with gas? Every day! Help!

5 replies

H44123 · 28/03/2023 06:30

Hi all,

just looking for some advice and to see if this happens for anyone else.

my baby boy is 6 weeks (7 weeks in a few days) and is formula fed. Sleeps in a next to me attached to our bed.

for the last few weeks he generally goes down about 9/10pm and can do a 4 hour sleep for the first bit and then wakes up so I feed him. I change him, feed him, keep him upright for about 20 mins then cuddle back to sleep so normally lasts about an hour. I wind him loads too.

so tonight that was between 2-3am then he slept til around 4.30/5am. The problems start from here. He is on comfort milk so easier to digest and has been for around 4 weeks. Does struggle with constipation so we give a tiny amount of lactulose in the morning which helps him go once a day.

come 4.30/5am every day, baby grunts, strains, cries, wriggles like he’s trying to fart/poo. It’s so loud it wakes me up. Then from 4.30 onwards it’s broken sleep, max 20 mins at the most. He is honestly like a fish out of water wriggling and squirming that much in his cot. Sometimes he does farts which don’t seem to help. I make sure everyday we get up between 7/7.30 and start the day but I don’t know what to do to stop him waking up with the gas pains. He isn’t like this during the day or any other time just every early morning

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Sweetestp · 28/03/2023 19:27

hi there, you have my sympathy.
My DB was the same, he is now 4 months and hopefully outgrown it but it was still quite bad up until 3,5 months.. he would usually start his grunting, wriggling and burping around 3am and I would give up by 5am trying to get him back to sleep. I tried so many things but not sure if anything made a difference. I often slept with a pillow on my head so that i would be able to sleep through his grunting which sometimes started at 01:00 already.
apparently probiotics is proven to help but never consistently tried it.

it really is just part of their immature gut that is developing and i guess some babies are more sensitive than others.. these symptoms also peak around the 6 to 8 week mark.. he also sleeps in a sidecot next to me so i ended up sending DH to sleep in a different room for about two weeks just so we wouldn’t both be exhausted.
it sucks, but I think its just something you’ve got to go with and wait it out!

Sweetestp · 28/03/2023 19:29

Oh we also did a whole lot of leg cycling to get the farts out, but like you say, it didn’t necessarily reduce the amount of squirming etc!

TheCentreSlide · 28/03/2023 19:31

This happened with mine, it’s normal (and not conducive to getting enough sleep I know!) - it will pass. Hang in there!

LapinR0se · 28/03/2023 19:44

Babies’ digestive system wakes up at 4-5am every day.
you have the following options:

  • put in earplugs and ignore
  • move to another bedroom and ignore
  • co sleep from 4/5am
  • hold your baby to sleep from 4/5am
H44123 · 28/03/2023 21:52

Thank you all for your replies.

I thought it could be his digestive system which makes sense it waking up around that time causing him pains. Started Infacol today again (tried twice before but not consistently ) so I am determined to do this every feed for at least a week to see. Also going to wind him a lot more tonight to see if that helps.

luckily my partner starts work very early so he misses the sounds but I think I might have to go for some ear plugs to get me through these next few months 😂

I feel like I am on a countdown to 12 weeks with the hope everything “sorts” itself out… colic, grunting, pooing troubles!

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