Nightmares / night terrors?

[CapeTownMommy]

Dd has been sleeping through the night for months now, even when she's teething she rarely wakes up (the exception being the nights with a 2am playtime, but I've posted about that in a separate thread, it's been a while since that last happened anyway).

Well anyway, last night she woke up 3 times, crying. The first time I'm not even sure she was awake, but she was crying and lying in the corner of her crib with her head against the rails. I moved her, I think she was still asleep, tucked her back in and she stopped crying. The second time she whimpered a bit and went back to sleep - I was at her door when I realised she'd actually quieted down again. The third time, she woke up totally, when I got to her she was standing in the crib and crying. I held her for a minute and she fell back asleep - I didn't even have time to nurse her. Which got me to thinking - is it possible she had a bad dream and just needed some comfort? She's 10 and a half months old. I don't know when these things normally happen, but it's so out of character for her that I thought something must be up.

On the upside, after the last crying spell (that was around 3am), she slept until 6:40 this morning! :rockon

[AmyDoll]

Seperation anxiety? Teething? those would be my first 2 guesses.

[WI Mama05]

:shrug It could be so many things at this age. FWIW, night terrors are crying/screaming, "running" in their sleep, hitting you away and you can't get them to stop. There's no amount of comforting that will make it stop until the episode is over. They're no fun at all. My oldest had them from infancy to about age 3 and now they are much less frequent!

She could possibly be "working something out" in her sleep. My kids will do that - if they had something crazy happen that day or are just learning a new skill it will affect their sleep.

Also, my youngest just teethed two molars last week and was waking up sobbing throughout the night and a simple comfort seemed to calm her that time. :shrug :heart :hug2

[CapeTownMommy]

She has just cut a tooth, so I suppose that could be it, although up until now she's been the world's easiest teether - first 5 came without a peep. She's on nr 6 now.

We had a bad bout of separation anxiety at 7-8 months, no fun, but I think she's mostly worked through that. Thank God!

So I suppose that leaves "working something out" - makes sense, I think.

Thanks for the explanation of night terrors - sounds terrifying, and if I didn't know about this I would have been out of my mind with worry if it ever happens to us!

[WI Mama05]

We had a bad bout of separation anxiety at 7-8 months, no fun, but I think she's mostly worked through that. Thank God!


I hope you are all doing better :heart. Just an FYI, seperation anxiety can go in waves. My DD#2 just went through (is coming off of) another bout of separation anxiety. It is just "one of those things" that doesn't abide by an arbitrary age or period of time :hug2 :no. I hope that you have an easy time of it from hear on out!

[CapeTownMommy]

I really hope so to! In-laws are coming to visit us for a week now, and the last time she saw them she was right in the middle of separation anxiety so didn't want to spend much time with anyone but mommy. So I'm hoping for a good visit!

[eejei]

From my experience with night terrors (ds has them) I'd say what you dd experiences wasn't it. Because normally during a night terror to even touch the child will make the night terror escalate. Ds's night terrors always happen within a few hours of going to sleep and he often screams and screams for maybe 10 to 15 minutes, it doesn't matter what we do he comes out of it on his own and when the episode is over he will lie back down and go back to sleep. It is a horrible thing to watch and distressing for everyone in the house as it's so loud and distresssing. Foruntately he is starting to grow out of them and they happen only occasionally now.
Night terrors were described to me as two sleep stages colliding. So instead of the child going peacefully from one sleep stage to the next the two sleep stages overlap and for some reason a night terror occurs. A child psycholigist told me this.

[Rabbit]

Samantha has bad dreams from time to time, especially when something during the day stressed her out, even just briefly. Simon, on the other hand, hasn't had a bad dream yet, but he did wake himself up this week from laughing so loud in a dream.

[WI Mama05]

Simon, on the other hand, hasn't had a bad dream yet, but he did wake himself up this week from laughing so loud in a dream.


:lol :heart that is so precious, although I suppose not for mom at 2 am :smile!

[klpmommy]

bbl, I was just getting offline when I saw this....

[klpmommy]

having now had time to read the responses- I agree that those aren't night terrors. P has them & they are horrible & very intense. Definately sounds like your baby may be working out a new skill.

And Natalie- that is so funny that he woke himself up laughing. That would be a nice change in our house!!!