We have an almost 7 week old daughter who has acid reflux. She's been on medication for a few weeks and takes breastmilk, although it's almost exclusively through a bottle now. During weeks 5 and into 6, she was getting so much better. She would nap for 3 hours during the early afternoon, would go down at night between 8-9, feed between 1230-130 am, then wake again between 4-5, and then go down for a couple more hours. We were finally getting some sleep.
Then suddenly things changed Thanksgiving night. She had a tough time going down that night at Grandma's (she's been there once before for 2 nights with no issues). The moment we set her down to sleep, she started grunting, swallowing hard, and struggling to get out of her swaddle. She didn't have any decent sleep until the 2 hour car ride home at 11:30 Friday morning. The same thing would happen every time we tried to get her to nap on Friday. She'd fall asleep in our arms (as usual since we have to keep her upright for 30 minutes after feeding due to reflux) but when we lay her down flat to swaddle, she wakes herself up (didn't use to do that).
She finally stayed asleep after 8pm Friday night. By that time, she had only slept for 3 of the previous 15 hours. When she woke in the middle of the night, she fed normally, but wouldn't stay back down. The only time she got any sleep was lying on her tummy on her mother's chest.
Saturday was more of the same. Would not sleep on her back. She went down around 2 for an hour. She started screaming out of the blue, so we fed her. She devoured a bottle without even opening her eyes, and slept again for an hour. It was the same thing over again on Saturday night. Pass out in our arms and freak out the moment she's on her back. We were up every hour having to attend to her since she was screaming and out of her swaddle.
She also seems to be dreaming moments after closing her eyes and she makes the saddest faces. She's eating fine and gaining plenty of weight. The doctor said don't even bother waking her in the middle of the night. But all of a sudden, she will not sleep. We haven't changed a single thing in the last several weeks (as she started to sleep well).
I wasn't sure if this was a nap issue, or nighttime issue. But our doctor seems to think it's all still a result of the reflux. I'm at my wits end since there seems to be no solution to get her to nap well so she can sleep well at night.
