December 2012 Moms

Mid-night screaming

Anyone have ideas on this?

Baby has never been a good sleeper, and rarely goes more than a three hour stretch of sleep over night.   Usually he rouses, I go into his room, nurse for 5 or 10 minutes and he's right back to sleep.  It's been annoying but not too bad.  The past couple weeks he's been waking every 1.5 to 2 hours overnight.   Occasionally he'll be half awake and screaming, arching his back and generally acting like he's in a lot of pain.  That is, until I sit him up.  Then he fully wakes up, looks at me and smiles like nothing's happened.   Then it takes another half hour to an hour for him to fall back asleep and we're into the whole cycle again.

 Tonight it was so bad I brought him into bed with us, thinking he'd sleep better.  Nope.  Now he's asleep in the bed and I'm wide awake after one of these episodes, wondering how long it will be until he wakes again screaming.

anyone encountered something  like this before?  It makes me wonder about nightmares, night terrors, etc.  but he's only six months old.  It seems a bit early for nightmares, doesn't it?  

And of course DH is in bed snoring right along with baby, and I'm bumping at 2:30am!  Argh!  I'm a terribly light sleeper myself, so all the wake ups and middle of the night drama mean I'm getting even less sleep than normal.


 

Re: Mid-night screaming

  • kimskikimski member
    i vote for gas our little has more gas pain when lying. or ears a change in position changes fluid pressing on ear. or you've trained baby that when they scream like that at night you'll come and they're playing possum. :)
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  • LO had something like that a few weeks ago. (Right about when she turned 6 weeks and had gotten her shots) ... she cosleeps so would notice her squirming before the intense crying would start. Yes, she wouldn't even open her eyes which told us that she was sleeping through it. Rub her intestines a bit and position change then pop her on the boob and good to go. Lasted about a week or week and half I think.

    So yah, I think it is gas however the ear explination makes sense as well. Oh and my LOs record for longest sleeping strech is 5 hours (and that was for the sitter).
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  • Not sure if they can occur this young, but my friend's DS had night terrorsaround 6-7months. Sounds like what you are describing. It's the difference in you saying screaming versus what other PP are saying as crying. 




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  • Night terrors usually don't start developing before 8-9 months, and nightmares occur around 1-2 years of age. So I am doubting it's that, it's probably just gas. I would probably give some gas drops before bed, and see if that helps.
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  • LO will do this every now and then as well but 9 out of 10 its a gas bubble & if we give him a minute or two we'll hear a nice big fart over the monitor. I will sometimes go in & pick him up to pat his back, rub his tummy, etc. and will get a burp/fart that seems to make everything all better.
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  • Thanks, everyone.  I'll try out the gas hypothesis and use some of your suggestions tonight.  Wish me luck!

    Ps.  Littlefish DS once or twice in his life has slept a five hour stretch overnight and it was so unusual that a) we thought he'd expired and b) I felt like a million bucks in the morning.  I'd forgotten what it felt like to be well-rested!  

  • I agree with the gas or maybe even heart burn. You could try propping his mattress up for a few nights and see if that helps as well. My DD has recently, and only a few times, woken up screeching. Like this ear piercing sound that scares the hell out of me. It's so abrupt.

    As for nightmares I think it'd be exceptionally rare for that to be the case. That doesn't usually start until much later. And the fact that he is better when you just sit him up seems to tell me it's gas or heart burn or maybe even the ear thing. If he were having nightmares you'd have to do a lot more to sooth him back to a calm state 

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