Pedi is stumped...Any ideas?

My five week old id twin girls aren't particularly fussy (knock on wood) and are decent sleepers for their age. Going 4-4 1/2 hrs between feedings at night and about 3 hrs during they day. Starting at around 2 weeks, Cecelia began screaming and making what i can best describe as squirrel noises in her sleep. First night I thought something was horribly wrong, but when i checked on them, both were sound asleep. Now, both girls are doing it. When i say scream, I mean SCREAM in their sleep, like they are in pain. Last night, it was so bad, i had to put earplugs in. Noticed that Cecelia was gassy last night, but not other nights.
As i said, when i check them, they sometimes are restless asleep, but often sleeping peacefully, but still making noise.

Pedi didn't have any ideas. Wondering if it could be some digestion issues, but weird thing is they seem okay when they are awake, just gassy sometimes, occasionally spitting up, and switching off being fincky about bottle or breast....like when i give them the bottle, they'd rather be bfing and visa vera. Oh, and they are bf w/ formula supplement. Any ideas? Any other sleeping screamers?

 

I really have no idea about the screaming thing, but I just have to say that my Ava made what seems to be the exact same noise as your Cecelia. We used to call her our little chinchilla because she sounded just like my pet chinchilla, Chloe. She made the noise (sleeping or awake) until she was about 2 1/2 months, and we haven't heard it since. Strange...

 

The screaming we have when our Noah is asleep is due to either gas or what the pedi calls night terrors. But, I think your wee one is a little young for the night terror thing.

 

My little Alex does that to this day sometimes when he is sleeping. He does it during naps and nighttime sleeping. Thank GOD his sister can sleep through it even when it is its loudest. Alot of times it is just a scream of 2 and then nothing. When I check on him he is sleeping peacefully. It sounds like what you are describing and like it is painful, but overall it doesn't bother or even wake him up. What I have noticed is that it didn't change when he started xantac whch says to me it wasn't a reflux thing as all other reflux symptoms are gone. He tolerates gassiness better now that he is older and doesn't do it when he is farting away while awake; so that theory flew out the window to. As best as I can tell it seems to be the worst when he is overtired so I have btaken to putting him down when he shows signs of being tired even if it is sooner than I think he should nap. Since starting this a couple of weeks ago it is decreasing in fequency and intensity. Like you my pedi was clueless but this has worked for me. By the way my twins are 3 monthes old now. Hope this helps you too.

 

I don't know the right terminology anymore, but it sounds like a sleep cycle issue. You have different brain waves that are active during different periods of sleep. I would guess you'd find that these screams coincide with the phases of the sleep cycle. In adults, a sleep cycle is about 90 minutes, give or take. I'm not sure what it is for a child. If I remember, the REM cycle is the lightest cycle and maybe this is when he is "awake" enough to scream. The brain should suppress any real movement or function during sleep, but maybe he has enough arousal that a scream can come out. Hopefully he's not really have night terrors yet. He should be dreaming of bunnies

 

Our baby A did this about half a dozen times. I thought it was night terrors (our oldest child has these and that was exactly what it was like). She stopped at about two months old. I think it may have just been an immature system - she doesn't do it anymore. Hopefully it will go away.

Angel

 

Babies can have night terrors from day 1. I'm thinking it's an immature system as well, hopefully they'll settle down soon.