Baby is a LOUD sleeper
February 8, 2017 12:21 AM   Subscribe

My 4 week old is a very loud sleeper.She is so loud when she sleeps that I can't get any rest. I am looking for tips, advice, encouragement, anything you can offer!

I know babies are loud sleepers, but this is ridiculous. She grunts, strains, cries out, gurgles, etc. every 5-10 minutes while she sleeps. These are loud enough to wake up my toddler down the hall, and can be heard on the other side of the house. I, of course, get zero sleep.

What we've done so far:

We actually tried putting her in the next room, but (1) I can still hear her, and (2) then I have to get up 3-4 times a night to nurse her (she is still nursing every 2 hours) and honestly getting up that much is not really better. If she's next to me, at least I can stay in bed . . .

She sleeps in a special mattress that is one a bit of an incline to help with potential reflux. The mattress is in a bassinet right next to my side of the bed.

We briefly tried swaddling but I had the impression that it was actually worse so we gave up. We swaddled the first for about 8 weeks so I have all the swaddle blankets and I know how to do it.

What can I do to get some sleep while I am waiting for her to grow out of it, or get big enough that I can put her in a separate room? Or alternatively, does this sound like an issue I need to talk to the pediatrician about? Maybe it is not normal?
posted by ohio to Health & Fitness (13 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Mine was a loud sleeper too. White noise helped.
posted by Catseye at 12:42 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


White noise, different room. Baby monitor at the right volume to hear I'm hungry.

Alternatively you can try wheat/dairy/soy free diet. It's probably a long shot of you're not getting a bunch of spit up, but if you are, I'd give it a go.
posted by Kalmya at 2:58 AM on February 8, 2017


It might be worth getting checked out - it may be just the way your kiddo sleeps, but it might be something like tonsils or severe reflux that is interfering with her breathing. I knew someone whose child was a very noisy (and very active) sleeper and it turned out to be caused by enlarged tonsils.

Meanwhile, white noise will help block the baby sounds so YOU can sleep.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 5:05 AM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


White noise, white noise, white noise. I'm pretty sure I would have jumped out a window in my baby's first weeks if I hadn't had white noise at bedtime.
posted by cooker girl at 5:38 AM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


We put our kids in their own rooms from the start and used a nanny monitor instead of a normal monitor. I didn't have any problem not hearing crying... I just didn't want to hear all the baby dragon noises- but with both kids the noise stopped around 6 weeks or 2 months I think.
posted by catspajammies at 6:18 AM on February 8, 2017


Oh... And we took turns sleeping in their rooms on a twin mattress. I tended to use an ear plug in the ear that wasn't on the mattress.
posted by catspajammies at 6:19 AM on February 8, 2017


It's possible she'll pretty quickly grow out of this. I remember being shocked at how loud my infant was at 2-6 weeks, and then a few weeks later or so barely noticing again. (did you say she is just 4 weeks?)

If it gets too bad that you're really not sleeping, and you're starting to lose it, could you perhaps take shifts with your partner? It would mean introducing a bottle for a feeding (I'm imagining pumping for you before bed, and your partner does a feeding) while you caught up in another room or couch. I used to (and sometimes still) sleep with headphones in to music/meditation/white noise to block out all noise.
posted by Rocket26 at 8:33 AM on February 8, 2017


You can download white noise .Mp3 files to play on a loop.
posted by theora55 at 9:23 AM on February 8, 2017


My noisy infant turned out to have a mild malformation of the larynx. I found out when I escalated the concern to a pediatric ENT, no treatment was required in her case and she's now a slightly snore-y seventh grader. But it could have been more problematic so I'm glad I followed up on it.
posted by padraigin at 10:49 AM on February 8, 2017


If you take her in to get checked up, take some videos of her sleeping first. My first was a noisy sleeper to the point where we took her in urgently worried she wasn't breathing well, and after her pediatrician checked that her blood oxygen seemed healthy, she watched my videos and said nothing she was seeing worried her. It was a big relief to know she'd actually seen what it was like rather than just hearing my reports.
posted by potrzebie at 12:29 PM on February 8, 2017


White noise plus separate room if it doesn't make you anxious. Taking turns sleeping elsewhere with a partner helped me a bunch. When I gave my wife a break, I'd bring the baby in for nursing and then return the tyke to the crib after.

Also, with my kids, the noisiness abated after the first couple months, so just trying to hang in there might work. I know it sucks, but it will pass.
posted by that's candlepin at 1:12 PM on February 8, 2017


I slept with drug store earplugs when my newborn was a noisy roommate. I was worried I wouldn't hear him cry but certainly did. However, it completely cut out the snorts and snores and snuffles. Eventually he quieted down after a few weeks.
posted by whitewall at 2:31 PM on February 8, 2017


Response by poster: Just in case anyone finds this in future, we ended up having to move her to a different room. The other room was far enough away that the dragon noises were not so terrible, but I could still hear the crying. We tried white noise for about 5 minutes but then realized that we wouldn't be able to hear the older child if he called from down the hall, so we gave up.

Now, at 8 weeks, she is definitely less noisy. Still has a rough period from about 4:30 to 6:30 am, but does pretty well until 4:30. We actually moved her back into our room so I don't have to get up so much at night.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, everyone!
posted by ohio at 9:18 AM on March 14, 2017


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