2 week old grunting/straining loudly in sleep

vszapp

DS is a pretty good sleeper during the day and for the first stretch at night. After his first wake up to feed at around midnight though, he will go back to sleep but grunts loudly and squirms in his sleep all night long! It honestly sounds like he's giving birth. He will do it for 30 sec or so, then quiet for a minute or so, then repeat ad nauseum. We can only guess that he's trying to poop but can't in his sleep?? It doesn't matter what position he's in - being held, RNP, laying flat. We've tried pumping his legs and nothing happens. Ideas on what is going on? We're dying over here... DD has reflux and MSPI and we never saw this with her.

brizer21

I feel like I could've written this myself. My DD is almost 7 weeks and does the exact same thing after the MON and early AM feed. Are you BFing or FFing? My LO has reflux and is on Zantac and is FF... Our ped switched our forumla which seems to be helping a little bit but the grunting is still happening, I usually just put on some white noise and sleep through it... It doesn't seem to bother her one bit.

SweetTea420

My DS is three weeks old and started doing the grunting in his sleep this week. In fact I am listening to it right now. I think he is just gassy because sometimes I hear him fart after he strains. I can't believe he can sleep through that, because I sure can't! I am going to break down and get a baby monitor and move him to his room this weekend.

Roeni

Mine has always done this. He is EBF and 10 weeks old

vszapp

brizer21 said:

I feel like I could've written this myself. My DD is almost 7 weeks and does the exact same thing after the MON and early AM feed. Are you BFing or FFing? My LO has reflux and is on Zantac and is FF... Our ped switched our forumla which seems to be helping a little bit but the grunting is still happening, I usually just put on some white noise and sleep through it... It doesn't seem to bother her one bit.

He is exclusively BF. I think he has reflux, but since it's only at night there must be something else to it. I'm thinking maybe trapped gas and poop from not moving around? He usually starts in the RNP.

flcl

Have you tried pumping and bicycling his legs throughout the day and not just at night? Not sure if it will help with your LO but my guys gas is worse at night if I don't help him pump his legs during the day. GL!

brizer21

@vszapp‌ DD started exclusively in the night too and then she started grunting all throughout the day.. After she got Zantac I chalked it up to upset stomach/gas. I've tried gas drops, gripe water, bicycling, massage... Nothing really seems to work and the pedi told me she will eventually grow out of it. I'm half-tempted to buy "The Windi" (same makers of nosefrida) to give her some relief. Luckily, she sleeps through her grunting at night but not so much during the day. We also have her in a RNP exclusively based on the reflux and the Dr was okay with that or trying the carseat.

Sorry I'm not much help, just wanted you to know you're not alone!

PrimRoseMama

Their guts are still learning to work so digestion, gas etc is uncomfortable. It goes away after the 3 month mark or so.

pmattingly927

My LO did this often. He's a very gassy baby, but it's pretty normal. He doesn't do it much anymore now since he turned 2 months. I am also using enfamil gentlease now, but still breastfeeding and pumping bottles a few times a day and I think that has helped him a lot. I feel as though my milk gives him gas, but not ready to take it away completely yet.

vszapp

After listening to it again last night, I'm not even sure we can call it grunting. He honestly sounds like I did when I was pushing him out (natural birth)! Once he started up last night, I did pump his legs before I changed and fed him, and he made a big old poop and some gas. Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from grunting/yelling after he was fed and I put him back to bed...

JKTTC1

LO is 3 weeks old and does this every night and it's getting worse but I know it's gas. We bicycle his legs and pull them up to his chest and it sometimes allows him to release the gas but he's upset and grunting.

We have tried gripe water and gas drops with no relief. Last night he was uncomfortable from midnight until 3am and it was a long night.

I've thought about the Windi too but with only 10 and they aren't reusable...we'd have to use one every night and only last 10 days.

vszapp

Last night he didn't start until 3am but we knew it was poop since he hadn't gone since lunch yesterday. We tried pumping legs, massage, etc but nothing worked. Finally at about 8am he had a massive blowout and fell asleep about 2 seconds later. I sure hope he figures out how to work that sphincter soon!!