Night terrors

[Cumberland]

My 32 month old is waking up almost every other night crying or screaming. Actually, she isnt waking up, she is staying asleep but crying out. If one of us gets in bed with her, she is quiet for the rest of the night. I am not sure she even realizes that one of us is in bed with her, she doesnt wake up and she doesnt ask us to sleep in her bed. When I ask her in the morning if she had a bad dream, she doesnt even seem to remember.

Just now she has been in bed for an hour and we heard her screaming- she happened to be awake this time and said she needed covers. Two days ago, she cried out four or five times at night, and DH went to her, at 6am he had left for work, and I went to check on the screaming- she wanted her pee pee pad ( waterproof pad) adjusted. But in general she is not awake.

It makes me so sad to hear her crying out at night- she rarely talks about being afraid, although she had told me Swiper the fox scares her, she insists on the door being closed and all the lights off, even her fish tank. Is this just a phase? Is there anything I can do? She has been a consistent good sleeper but this is happening more and more.

[Sheherezade]

Funny...my daughter was scared of Swiper too. Creepy fox!

We had more luck keeping our little girl asleep if we kept her warm and snuggled with a giant blanket. Right now, she's under a queen sized down comforter on her twin bed. I think that mimics the parent snuggle somewhat.

Not much help, I know. I wish I could offer more. It is probably just a phase.

I'm sure it is just a phase. We've gone through similar -- both the request for complete darkness and completely lit. As long as she sleeps, I'm ok with either and it was always temporary (though I doubted that at the time ). With the nighttime screaming, I've had the best luck with comforting them back to sleep. Like you said, they don't even wake up but it seems to help. Along the lines of what Angie said, making sure they are snug and well-covered before I go to sleep seems to help.

[Flynn]

I don't have first hand experience as a parent but my sister had BAD night terrors. We were camping once and she woke the whole campsite up. The ranger had a kid with night terrors or he said he would have called CPS!

The doc back then said "she'll grow out of it" but I'm sure they have much more helpful info now. On a side note she did grow out of it but it took about 18 months.

Annie -- I really think this is a developmental thing that a lot but not all kids go through. Being two is hard on everyone in the house sometimes. That's what I told myself and am currently telling myself these days.

[Sheherezade]

Real "night terrors" are freaky. My son had one once. He woke up screaming and screamed with us sitting right next to him for several minutes. Then, he just went right back to sleep. :> He never acknowledged our presence in the room and immediately went back down with no soothing or assistance. He just bolted up and screamed bloody murder for a few minutes.

I was told that the "night terror" event is neurological. It is unrelated to actual events. For us, it just happened once. I thought someone on the board had a long term experience with night terrors, but I can't remember who. (Come out, come out.....where ever you are! ) What you've described sounds more like normal night waking than terrors. I honestly think that's harder to deal with because of the psychological elements.

Any better today?

[Phoebe]

My oldest had night terrors around 3 yo. Three was by far the worst time for us with both kids so far. We had a major power struggle going on at one point and I think the night terrors exempfied her anxiety. She would come out of her room screaming, but really not be awake. Trying to arouse her made it worse and our pediatrician said to let her be unless she was in danger. She had to pass the stairs going from her room to ours. Once she stopped screaming we would put her back in her bed. They eventually stopped, but they lasted off and on for a few months.

She slept with the light on for a year and now she has music, a nightlight, an dimmed overhead light, and a huge blanket.

Night terrors were scary at first but once we realized what was going on and how to best handle them, it was less stressful.

[mommax3]

My oldest had night terrors for an extended time around age 3. He was/is an intense kid and I related it to his innate intensity. It still sucked, though, especially when his screams would wake up his baby brother! He eventually grew out of it, but fwiw, he to this day is the hardest sleeper of my three. It was also worse when he got overtired.

Sally

[Cumberland]

Tonight when I mentioned bed she screamed and cried hysterically and refused to come upstairs. She cried bc she didnt want to brush her teeth, then cried after she got in bed bc she didnt brush her teeth. Then I read her 6 books and sang 5 songs ( triple the usual!), left the light on and the door open at her request. Then she cried bc she wanted the light off and the door closed. Then she just cried. I know it is all bc she is scared to fall asleep. Then DH got home and now I dont hear any crying but it is not looking pretty for tonight.

[Sheherezade]

Oh my. That does NOT sound like a fun mommy night.

I hope she settles in soon. Did she have some horrible nightmare? My daughter went through a run when she was scared to go to sleep for fear of a bad dream returning. We had some (very small) luck telling her that you can't order up dreams. We asked her if she could have a good dream over and she seemed to get that that wouldn't happen.