night terrors?? WTF?? (22 month old)
Help ladies! DD has been waking up a lot the past few weeks in the middle of the night, flipping the EFF out and its been taking us 1.5-2 hours to get her back to sleep. I'm getting back to the "I can't function at work" level of tired. Anyone experience this? Our usual routine if she wakes up is let her fuss for 10 minutes, usually she'll put herself back to sleep and all is well.
Lately she's been waking up really upset, (full on crying, not just fussing) so I go in sooner to try and soothe and put her back to bed. When I leave, she flips out, clinging and climbing up me like a little koala bear. It breaks my heart and really sucks at the same time. We've even tried letting her sleep with us and that has been a disaster, she just rolls around and kicks and squirms for an hour and we end up putting her back in her bed and starting the whole process over. I don't feel good about letting her just cry it out when she's sounding terrified, but I'm not sure what else to do. Suggestions? TIA!
Re: night terrors?? WTF?? (22 month old)
Carter has started to get these in the last month or so. They are terrible. Last night was brutal. He woke up screaming at 11:30 and I tried everything to settle him. Nothing worked. Brought him into my bed at 12:30. By 1:30 he was out enough that I could transfer him back to his crib. Takes alot of rocking, holding him swaying back and forth, pacing the halls, back rubbing, singing to him, etc.
I have heard that if your child does this at the same time each night, you can go in to their room and start rubbing their back about 10 mins before the episode usually starts and you might be able to avoid the complete freakout. In our case, the timing is different each time. Sometimes its 11:30, sometimes its 3am. It usually doesn't happen if Carter goes to bed on time and has 2 naps during the day, but if he is overtired I can pretty much expect an episode.
M went through a phase of doing that every night about 6 months ago. He grew out of it - knock on wood - and only does it every once in a while now.
It sucks but they eventually grow out of it. ::hugs::
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At LO's 2 year well child appointment today, I mentioned that my LO sometimes had night terrors. Our pedi asked if they happened about the same time at night. And, thinking about it, they do--usually between two and three. He said that if the night terrors happen more often, to wake LO up just before the usual time and to walk him around the house for 10-20 minutes, then put him back to bed. It will break the cycle. Hopefully it works.
LO had a night terror last spring while DH was traveling. LO was so worked up (and is speech delayed). Finally, I figured out that he wanted into his stroller and to go for a walk--at 2:30am! Our neighborhood is fine during the day but at night. . . I was less than thrilled with LO's plan. After a quick walk, we came inside and he watched TV (from his stroller) for about 45 minutes before he was calm and ready to go back to sleep.
I hope things get better for you both. Night terrors are NO fun.
If she actually wakes up it is not night terrors. With night terrorrs they scream, sweat, their heart rate goes up - but they don't wake up. J. had a lot of those last year when we moved to a different town and he started day care at the same time. He still has them but not as often. We tried everything to console him but nothing worked, So we basically do nothing - just make sure he is safe and wait for him to finish screaming. An episode usually takes him about 30 min, and then he calms down on his own. They are supposed to outgrow night terrors eventually.