Night Terrors

Difinitely not night terrors. I don't mean to be so blunt but if you have been through night terrors with a child you know this is not it. My son went through them for almost a year. I received four black eyes and a bloody nose not to mention the complete feeling of helplessness. A night terror occurs when the child is fully asleep, they cannot hear you, feel you or know you are anywhere near them. All you can do is keep them from hurting themselves even if that at times puts you in danger. His doctor told me that even though it looks like it they are not dreaming when they have night terrors, if I remember it happens beyond REM sleep, definitely not during REM sleep so no dreaming.

You have something else going on here, I wish you luck figuring it out.

Only thing you can do when they have the night terrors is just talk softly and comfort her. Dont do any xtra, wait until she is real calm and possibly sleeping in your arms and lay her back in her crib. When you lay her back down in her crib put her at the opposite end of where she was sleeping when she woke screaming.

I am thinking it might be separation anxiety. My baby is 8 months now too, and seems to be much more aware of who is who in his life. I tried him in the crib, and he woke up much more often and got very upset. My solution was to bring him in bed with us. I know there are strong opinions on both sides of this issue. I sleep better with him close by, able to nurse him back to sleep without disturbing my sleep so much.

I know this is extremely frustrating for all even the baby. My niece went throught this and all she could do was sooth her until she fell back asleep with humming and white noise. you just being there may calm her down..
good luck

Hi Audra,
I am not sure this is night terrors but maybe your pediatrician could be helpful with determining that. I saw a tv special about people with night terrors and it seems that it is very different from nightmares. They seem like they are still asleep when it happens and people can become quite violent, kicking, punching and rolling around. Anyway, I read that sometimes when a child hits a developmental milestone their sleep is disrupted. Could she be teething? If she is cutting teeth she may be having a hard time sleeping too. We did a modified cry it out with some soothing like patting on the back and shushing. When our daughter is sick or teething we do pick her up to comfort. Once she is almost asleep then we lay her back down. Sometimes that works. I read alot about bedtime routines and babies needing to learn to self soothe themselves to sleep at bedtime so that when they wake up in the middle of the night they can put themselves back to sleep. Try checking out some books about sleep maybe their could be something that will work for you. We have the bath, massage, nurse, book, lullaby, then put her down sleepy. This worked for us and only when she is sick or teething will she wake up in the middle of the night crying. Good luck!

That sounds traumatic... both for baby and you! I have never had this particular problem with my daughter, but from the sounds of it, you are doing the right thing! Obviously she is upset about something and she needs her M.. I am not a big fan of the "cry it out" method anyway, so I would say continue to comfort your baby and hopefully she will get back to normal quickly. It can be hard to function with little to no sleep, but hang in there!