3 week old grunts 4 hours per nights

brewcitybride

DS will be three weeks on Monday. I know it's too early to have a schedule (I'm a second time Mom, so I've done this all before) but we have a nighttime issue that we didn't have with DD. I feed DS when I go to bed around 8:30, then again at 10:30 or 11:00, then usually close to 2:00, then 5:00, then he's up for good around 7:00 for a bit. The problem is that after the 2:00 a.m. feeding, he grunts and strains all the way to 7:00 a.m.! He's not crying, he doesn't seem to be in pain, I don't think it's reflux because again, he's not crying or spitting up. It's just continuous grunting and straining for 5 hours! He's not constipated because he's still having regular bowel movements. It could be gas, but again, it's not accompanied by crying, which is usually the sign of painful gas.

My problem is trying to figure out if we should pick him up and comfort him, or let him work it out on his own. We've done both so far, and what happens is he wants to continuously feed if I pick him up, even if he's just eaten half an hour before. So for the past few nights, we've been up from 2-7 a.m.

My other concern is we could put him in his nursery soon if this continues. That way he could make all the noise he wants and we won't hear quite as much of it (he's in a bassinet next to our bed right now). But I don't want to run up and down the stairs 6 times per night or more, so I really wanted to hold off on the nursery until he is more like 8 weeks and possibly going longer between feedings..

Anyone else's baby grunt and strain all night and you can't figure out why?