Unsettled newborn at night

DAT64

I have a very content happy little two week old who rarely cries and is thriving.
we are having a strange issue that I’d love your opinions on.

At night when she wakes for a feed she wakes hyper, her arms and legs are flapping, hands in mouth and eyes may be open or closed but she’s not engaged it’s like she’s zoned out. Her breathing is like panting too. We give her bottle and she is happy taking it, we wind her and change her if needed. Room is dark and she is in a co sleeper. She falls asleep in our arms and as soon as we put her down she starts again and this could go on for ages. The only way I have found to settle her is to let her sleep in my arms until she is 100% asleep and then move her. Once morning comes she has snapped out of it and wakes as normal and feeds as normal.
Any ideas why she is doing this?

It sounds like the newborn startle reflex, completely normal and usually settles after the first few months. Mention it to your nurse on the next visit if it worries you just to be sure.

witchgirl26

My little boy had a bad startle reflex too that kept him awake a lot. We ended up getting a grosnug for him. It's like a grobag and a swaddle in one, there are poppers where you can keep their arms in or leave them out when they grow out of the startle reflex. He loved it and was much happier in it than out.

Milly33

Our little fella used to do something similar, well he would just phaff around for a good bit before settling, but the grunts and arms wavy about was unreal.. It was all normal, we had his cot next to the bed but separate and we would just let him at it.. Eventually he would fall asleep of his own accord (he is just gone the 4mths now).. One good thing to do is maybe change the nappy before feeding, as they are nice and settled after their feed, changing after means you kinda wake them up a bit..

DAT64

Milly33 wrote: »

Our little fella used to do something similar, well he would just phaff around for a good bit before settling, but the grunts and arms wavy about was unreal.. It was all normal, we had his cot next to the bed but separate and we would just let him at it.. Eventually he would fall asleep of his own accord (he is just gone the 4mths now).. One good thing to do is maybe change the nappy before feeding, as they are nice and settled after their feed, changing after means you kinda wake them up a bit..

Thanks for the reply, good to know we aren’t alone, as she’s so new and we are so new we just weren’t sure what the story was.
Does your son still do it or did he stop eventually?

DAT64

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

It sounds like the newborn startle reflex, completely normal and usually settles after the first few months. Mention it to your nurse on the next visit if it worries you just to be sure.

Thanks for that, I had a look on google and some of the reactions are definitely startle reflex thanks

Milly33

Oh not at all. I get you, everything is so new and scary when ye and the baby are getting used to things...Between the terrors that people can put on ye, and yer own ohh are we doing it right! That is so true just incase yer own instincts are 9 times out of 10 correct, ye are fine tuned to each other..

The Moro reflex is another fun one to look into, quite cute in a way... Yep our fella did stop it eventually id say it was just before the 3months.. We have a 2 year old aswell and she was not like it at all, I used to kinda stay awake for her to make sure she was still breathing she slept so sound.. He did too it was just he liked to give out a little before he eventually went to sleep..But the worry that oh no he is going to be sick or he isnt happy was always there, until we got used to it..

heldel00

Not directly related to your specific issue but I can not recommend a nice warm bath about 11pm enough to all new parents. It absolutely knocks them out. Enjoy new born stage. Over before ya know it

It’s so hard to enjoy the newborn stage when you are in such a fog, I’m clinging on to dear life now, he’s not a teenytiny baby anymore at 4 months. It slips away so fast! But do you know what I think this stage is nice too ��

Milly33

I always have the thought that when times are bad or unsettled with them, at the time it feels like forever but if you start writing it down and looks back it is only a couple of weeks just feels like forever at the time