Nightmares?

[HeppiBean]

Hey all, was wondering if any of you could give me some adive/answers...

The last few nights Francesca has been really restless, she's going down her usual time and sleeping through for 11/12 hours... But...

Every couple of hours she'll cry for about 5 minutes, she doesn't wake up, her eyes stay shut and if I just talk to her or even touch her she'll stop crying, but she just cries in her sleep... Do you think this could be nightmares? I hate to think of my little darling having scary dreams!

If it's not nightmares... What could it be? xx

 

[Constantstar]

Owens has something similar he would literally out of no where start crying ( but that really scared painful cry) when he was in his cot and his eyes were closed and I'm sure he was still asleep! I used to go up and stroke his face and talk to him quietly, and put him dummy in and he would calm down and be happy again. I put this down to nightmares I can't see why else! It's scary for us mums tho!

 

[HeppiBean]

That's just what Cesca's like. It's been horrible xx

 

[Maria1977]

Sounds like night terrors. Oz suffers from them.

They say that generally they can start from around 2 years old, but that they have been known to start from as young as 9 months. But Oscar started when he was about 4 months old.

It's awful. He screams like he's being murdered. He gets really restless first so we sometimes know when one is coming and we'll turn him, but it doesn't always work.

They are not aware of what is happening, if you try to comfort them etc they don't know.

It's being stuck between 2 stages of sleep that causes it apparently. A terror can last from a few minutes to 30 minutes!! The longest one for Oscar is about 10+ minutes. Horrendous. All we can do is hold him and walk round with him until he falls back into the deep sleep again.

Sometimes he gets a few throughout the early part of the night. The older he's getting the more he screams though and for longer.

Fricking awful. My OH used to suffer from them apparently!

Going to bed overtired or agitated can bring them on too.

 

[Belfast girl]

Emma has night terrors every now and again, we know its one as they always happen at the same time, 8.30pm after going down at 7. I just cuddle her til its over, i don't know if it makes a difference but it makes me feel better. the odd thing is she will suddenly stop crying/screaming and start smiling in her sleep.

They are horrible.

 

[HeppiBean]

Thanks girls, I feel so sorry for her :/ Although she probably doesn't know what's going on I just hate to think that she might xx

 

[Maria1977]

Yeah, apparently they have no idea that it ever happened. So if it happens when they are a bit older we were reading last week that it is recommended not to tell them about it as it might scare them!!

It is horrendous listening to your baby scream though. Last week Oz had some so bad I stripped all his clothes off looking for rashes thinking I needed to get him to hospital lol Then I calmed down and realised he weren't even waking up so it must be another night terror. But they have gotten really bad for him. He does go a few months without them, then a load hit over a few weeks!

 

[HeppiBean]

Oh how awful xx