Attachment Parenting
Jbosarge85
member
Night terrors?
Jbosarge85
member
I bedshare with my one year old DD. We recently night weaned and she is doing great, except once or twice a night she will wake up crying/wailing. I try to pat her and shush her but she keeps crying so I pick her up and rock her and even being rocked it can take a minute or two to calm down. Is it possible that she could be having night terrors? Anything I can do to help her sleep better? TIA
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Re: Night terrors?
I have worked with 2 children that had night terrors. They do not just cry and wake up. It is a terrifying, blood curdling..."I'm being stabbed to death" screaming. It is very distinct. It is terrifying for anyone else in the house as it comes out of nowhere and is soooooo urgent sounding.
As the PP said if it is night terrors you're best not to wake them...this will terrify them as they have no idea what is going on...and any parent/caregiver woken by a night terror is going to look panicked...which scares the child more. Just be there, nearby in case they wake on their own.
I would think your daughter is waking from bad dreams. Nightmare, though scary are pretty common, they wake a child up and the child needs to be consoled...and it usually only takes a few moments to settle them.
Hopefully it is just nightmares and it phases out soon!
DS used to have night terrors and he would scream bloody murder (while still seeming totally out of it), and the only thing that would soothe him was boobs. with night terrors, you can avert them by gently rousing your kid about 2 hours after they fall asleep. this disrupts their sleep cycle enough that they miss out on the night terror. this worked for us.