4 week old grunts/niggles/cries out between 1am and 7am

[earlycomputers]

Any ideas why this could be? We regularly give him infacol before feeds. He feeds well at 7pm and then wakes for feed at 10.30pm. At 1am he wants a feed and then 2 hourly after this. The problem is that he on;ly feeds for a few minutes at each of these mini-feedings and I am wondering if this is the cause of the grunting/straining etc - ie he isn't sufficiently fed? If he was awake more at these feedings he would probably get more milk and be more happier - but I am struggling to keep him awake long enough. He also passes a lot of wind between these times. thanks in advance!

Hi. I have just had my fourth baby and each time forget how much work newborns are. My advice is stop giving the baby infacol.I think it makes things worse. Your baby is probably getting used to his digestive system working, this will ease in time. I think you could undress your baby a little when you feed him, expose his feet and rub them, also the palm of his hand. If you are feeding every two hours you could consider that he is using you as a dummy as a tool to go back to sleep. I know it is a little early in his life to consider this but it could be the case, I know my five week old is doing this. Perhaps at one of the two hour intervals you could let him fuss for a while and see if he goes back to sleep by himself. But do not worry at around 6 to 7 weeks things will get better. Feeding is just a bit nuts in the beginning but it will improve and settle a bit more into a pattern.

I don't have any answers - but our 4-week old is the same. She sleeps fine from 8-12, then 12:30-3 and them snacks and naps for the rest of the night waking every hour or so for a 5 minute feed.

Last night I tried to force feed her at 3 to stop her waking up at 4; she wouldn't latch (but why would she if she didn't want more to eat!) and it resulted in me and her in tears and her father being sworn at before he got up with her at 4:30 leaving me to get some sleep. She settled down enough to get another hour or so sleep and they came back at 7 when she REALLY wanted a feed.

I'll not be trying that again - tonight I'm going to go with the flow and hope that she grows out of the napping and snacking thing soon!

not really any advice but my little girl was the same we hardly had any sleep for the first 6week thankfully at this stage she started to sleep through shes 4 and a half months now and still sleeping all night. you've just got to ride the storm and eventually it will get better.

Starynight - I do hope you are right! My litle nearly 4 w.o girl is doing the same kind of thing, at some point in the night waking for a feed and then not going back to sleep. It's driving me nuts. DS was not a great sleeper. He often woke up for a feed, but at least he always went back to sleep afterwards - at least, that's what I remember.
I'm trying to make sure she wakes for regular feeds through the day and to keep her awake a bit in the day as she'll just sleep and sleep otherwise. Sometimes this seems to help - when she has a really sleepy day the night is usually worse. But sometimes she is awake and feeding lots in the day and also wakeful at night - then I just despair!