Night waking (screaming)

irish4jan1

As soon as our son hit two he started waking up at night roughly around the same time screaming and calling for me. Sometimes it seems like he is having a  bad dream, but I feel like its separation anxiety.  We have a very consistent bed time routine, but he also has been refusing naps Fri-Mon. when he is home with me and not at daycare. Its been going on for a week or and at first I was picking him up and trying to rock him but he would scream again when I laid him back down. We also tried CIO, but that was a total bust and only made him more angry. For the past 4 nights what has been working is to go in, not pick him up, tuck him back in and in few words tell him its time to go back to sleep and that I am right here. I sit by the door until he has quieted down and fallen back asleep by himself and then stealthy leave the room. This seems to be working and takes much less time.

In any case, Im reaching out to see if anyone else is experiencing this and what they are doing about it. I know this CANT go on for ever and that it will pass, but Im feeling like I did when he was a baby with sleeplessness.

Thank you!

Cherryblossoms07

I had the same thing happen with my DS right after he turned two. I had no idea what caused it or how to fix it. He would wake up screaming. After a little rocking he would calm down and eventually fall asleep. We were going through this 4-5 times a night. He was also figting naptime. It was getting exhausting for him and me. Eventually I started letting him come to bed with DH and I after his first or second wakeup because I was so exhausted. When he slept with us he would sleep all night without interruption. It took a few weeks before he eventually quit waking up in the middle of the night and quit fighting naps. No idea why he went back to sleeping well, but I was very glad he did. Good luck!

Xath

Yeah, that's around the time where they start getting more vivid nightmares AND developing tangible fears. Try to pinpoint what it is in his room that he may be afraid of. With our son, we got a couple of fear based story books (We're Not Scared of Anything is a good one). When we figure out he had a fear of the dark, we got Lemony Snicket's "The Dark" and started reading it regularly. That combined with a small blue highlight helped ease his fears, and his terror of the dark has abated.

irish4jan1

Thanks ladies! Its nice to feel like we are not alone.

palmbreeze

Recently went through this and it was awful. I'm a single mom who works full time...I can't sit up all night. It was awful I didn't think I was going to survive. I never figured out what was wrong with him, but I changed our routine. No TV an hour before bed, night time snack to fill that belly, no sugars at all, lavender lotion, a new fan in his room (for white noise), I took down anything that could appear scary in his room, gave him some Infant Advil a couple times b/c I thought maybe he was teething....and I think that was about it. Something in that list helped! 

palmbreeze

Yeah j/k....the night screaming has started again. Damn me for replying to this post and jinxing myself. 

irish4jan1

After a month and a half of doing the Pantley method we have resorted to CIO, and its working. He still wakes up, but we can calm him down and he will go right back to sleep. Takes a lot less time and he still knows we are there. He can fall asleep on his own.