Gasping for air while sleeping

kellibelle0417

Hi everyone! William and Nora are now 7.5 weeks new and we are getting the hang of things! Yay! William has started to gasp for air from time to time when sleeping. He was doing it last night and really scared my husband and me! It doesn't last long. It is almost like he forgets to breathe then gasps for that breath. He kind of makes a high pitched noise when doing so. It had us up reading about it online. From what we gathered, it is normal and his system is still working itself out. Has anyone else experienced this? We will be watching him and will call our pediatrician if it seems to get worse or any other symptoms show up. P.S. We were using a shield for nursing. Now both babies are weaned off and nursing like champs!! Success! We still do about 1-2 formula feeds each day to help with my sanity or to make things easier when we are out and about.

jezebel57

I would call your ped. It sounds like it could be sleep apnea?

kellibelle0417

Thanks - I read about that, but it only lasts a few seconds. Sleep apnea seems to last longer: https://www.babycenter.com/0_sleep-apnea-in-babies_1741484.bc?page=1 I'll call just to be safe. He has been sleeping just fine today. So, I'm not sure.

daisy19782011

I would definitley call just to be safe.

Dragonfly1226

A used to make a noise like that! It scared the cr@p out of us. I talked to the pedi about it twice and even showed her a video. Basically the pedi said if she wasn't turning blue she was fine. When she saw the video she explained that in some small babies there is a part around the vocal cords or something that doesn't close all the way and vibrates. I know I butchered the explanation but it did stop around 2.5 months.

kellibelle0417

Dragonfly1226 said:

A used to make a noise like that! It scared the cr@p out of us. I talked to the pedi about it twice and even showed her a video. Basically the pedi said if she wasn't turning blue she was fine. When she saw the video she explained that in some small babies there is a part around the vocal cords or something that doesn't close all the way and vibrates. I know I butchered the explanation but it did stop around 2.5 months.

Thanks for sharing! We almost took a video of it. If it happens again we will. He has been sleeping fine all day today. Hopefully he will sleep peacefully tonight!

carrotcake06

One of mine does this. He'd do it in the NICU and we'd watch the monitors and nothing set off alarms, but I hate when he does it and it freaks me out.

Does he have reflux? The one that does this also has reflux and I kinda attributed it to that as well.

kellibelle0417

carrotcake06 said:

One of mine does this. He'd do it in the NICU and we'd watch the monitors and nothing set off alarms, but I hate when he does it and it freaks me out. Does he have reflux? The one that does this also has reflux and I kinda attributed it to that as well.

He did just recently start spitting up so I've been wondering about reflux. He already sleeps at an incline in a rnp. He had a few more episodes tonight. He seems to still be breathing through them and they only last a couple of seconds. We got it on video so I'll talk to our ped.

kellibelle0417

We moved him to sleeping flat after his episode in the middle of the night and he slept just fine. It might be crib transition time for him. I am wondering if sleeping at an incline is bothering him...

babywillmake3

Have you looked into a snuza monitor? Just for peace of mind?

mrsmac08

My son did that often when he was little, it was from his reflux. I would talk to the pedi.

kellibelle0417

babywillmake3 said:

Have you looked into a snuza monitor? Just for peace of mind?

We were just talking about that tonight and will be looking into one.

kellibelle0417

mrsmac08 said:

My son did that often when he was little, it was from his reflux. I would talk to the pedi.

Ok, thanks.