8 week old wakes every 2-3 hours because of gas.

[koochooloo]

My 8 week old EBF son doesn't typically sleep more than 3 hours during the night.  He'll wake, crying, from what seems to be gas pains.  My FIL is a otolaryngologist and diagnosed him with reflux, so we've had him on Omeprazole for five days.  My son seems to be much more comfortable - more smiles! - and is averaging 14.5 hours of sleep per day, up from about 12.5 per day.

Here is our chaotic attempt at an EASY schedule, from yesterday.  This day was particularly chaotic, which may be a result of a growth spurt.

Start   End   Activity   Duration
23:30   2:30           S   3:00
2:32           2:40           E   0:08
2:35           4:20           S   1:45
4:40           4:40           A   0:00
4:43           4:50           E   0:07
4:45           6:20           S   1:35
6:23           6:30           E   0:07
6:30           8:40           S   2:10
8:50           8:50           A   0:00
9:00           9:13           E   0:13
9:25           9:25           A   0:00
9:34           9:43           E   0:09
9:35           11:35   S   2:00
11:38   11:47   E   0:09
12:45   12:45   A   0:00
13:10   13:24   E   0:14
13:15   14:00   S   0:45
13:43   13:52   E   0:09
14:15   14:15   A   0:00
14:50   14:58   E   0:08
14:55   16:50   S   1:55
16:50   17:02   E   0:12
17:15   17:15   A   0:00
17:38   17:45   E   0:07
17:40   18:00   S   0:20
18:30   19:00   S   0:30
19:42   19:50   E   0:08
19:55   19:55   A   0:00
19:57   20:10   E   0:13
20:30   20:30   A   0:00
21:00   21:10   E   0:10
21:05   21:20   S   0:15
21:46   21:53   E   0:07
21:55   21:55   A   0:00
22:00   22:13   E   0:13
22:34   22:48   E   0:14
22:58   23:12   E   0:14
23:30   0:40           S   1:10

I admit to using the boob as a prop to help him sleep, but sometimes he's fine to fall asleep on his own.  It's a prop for me to help him get to sleep so I can get to sleep, really.

I'm so sleep deprived.  Any advice is welcome!!!  Thank you!!!

[Katet]

I must admit I'm really confused by what you've written. I tried to write it out to see how often you were feeding & how long your Awake times were in the day & I'm still rather confused.

It's not actually abnormal for a BF baby to be fed 3 hourly at night & to have a long unsettled time in the evening from dusk onwards, as that is when Mum's supply is at it's lowest so lots of feeding can be considered normal.

I'm also trying to work out where your "day" starts & finishes ie the times where there is activity time to do things like Tummy time & floor time rather than just feeding & sleeping.

Based on the lots of small feeds, I'd say reflux is probably part of the mix, but looking at what you've written above, I'm having a guess at the start of day was the 8.40am wake up where you have 55mins until the next sleep, which is probably about 10mins (or more) too short & I think that may have a knock on effect, as the big day sleep catches up on night sleep & then the rest of the day looks like the A time might be mostly too short with the exception of the 2nd one which was one hour 40 & then it's 55mins & then 50mins & I can see it all goes to a mess in the evening, where it could be a long unsettled period (not uncommon under 3mo) or maybe because of all short A times he's really not quite tired enough at the end of the day.

I can also see a lot of the sleep times & feeding times overlap, so it's possible that as he's feeding to sleep he's got a sleep association too & so (normal) he expects the same conditions in light sleep stages as he has when he falls asleep. So removing the feed to sleep is pretty important too.

As an idea the "textbook" (although few babies truly match that) would be for an 8week old roughly...
7am up & feed, followed by A time
8 to 8.10 am start to settle for sleep asleep by 8.15/8.30 (can take up to 20mins to settle)
10am up & feed, followed by A time
11ish start to settle for sleep
1pm up & feed, followed by A time
2pmish start to settle for sleep
4pm up & feed, followed by A time
5pmish settle for catnap
6pm up & bath & feed & short A time
7pm ish Settle for night
2 -4 night feeds including Dream feed if done.

Neither of mine did much like that, at 8 weeks old my eldest was still only going 2.5hours between feeds almost around the clock and was unsettled from about 4pm until 11pm, while my youngest was pretty good during the day, but unsettled from 2am to about 5am.

[koochooloo]

Thank you, I think you’re right about him being undertired. Although somehow he managed over 5 hours last night!

Here is our routine today, hopefully easier to interpret. Do the two catnaps indicate that he should have longer A times?

Start   End   E/A/S   Duration
23:30   4:40   sleep   5:10
4:43   4:49   eat   0:06
4:50   5:05   activity   0:15
5:05   7:40   sleep   2:35
7:55   8:06   eat   0:11
8:07   8:55   activity   0:48
8:55   10:55   sleep   2:00
11:00   11:16   eat   0:16
11:16   12:10   activity   0:54
12:10   12:55   sleep   0:45
13:08   13:20   eat   0:12
13:20   14:40   activity   1:20
14:40   15:25   sleep   0:45
15:29   15:39   eat   0:10
15:40   16:40   activity   1:00
16:40   17:05   sleep   0:25
17:05   17:30   activity   0:25
17:30   17:40   eat   0:10

[Katet]

It's really hard to work out what catnaps mean in under 3mo as some babies quite simply struggle to link sleep cycles.

FWIW 5-6 hours is "sleeping through" at 2months old, so that's pretty good.

It's hard to see if there is a trend based on one or 2 days, so it's worth looking to see if you can see a trend over a week.

[koochooloo]

Thank you so much for your reply and interpreting that mess of EASY!

It’s been a few weeks and I’m happy to report that the gas isn’t an issue and his sleep cycles have started to look much more textbook! Actually, without the gas DS is spot on with the sample schedule. Cutting out dairy completely resolved his symptoms within 2-3 days and now he gets 6-7 hours at night in his first stretch, wakes up once around 4am for a feed, then goes back until 8 or 9am. Once he could sleep, we started extending his A times and now at 3 months he’s comfortable at 1hr 45 in between naps. Happy baby and happy mom over here!!