Dd woke up at 2 am

[deegack]

I am not happy. I think she may have night terrors. This us the second time this week she woke up crying and wouldn't go back to sleep. Usually she sleeps from 7pm-6am. So tired

 

[GJM]

My DS had night terrors for awhile when he was young - it was awful! And then one day they just stopped -

 

[NHdisneylover]

I am sorry you are tired. It is so rough when kids keep you up. I am sorry your little girl is having bad dreams too.
It sounds more like nightmares than night terrors to me though. I say this because you say she woke you crying and would not go back to sleep.
Generally a night terror involve a VERY panic stricken child with eyes open wide who is not otherwise really awake at all. The child will cry very hard, or more than likely scream a blood curdling scream. There is no way to wake them or stop it and it can last 5 minutes or a half hour or anything in between. Then they fall right back to sleep and do not even remember it in the morning--but it is traumatic as all get out for the parents

 

[Nette]

I am sorry you are tired. It is so rough when kids keep you up. I am sorry your little girl is having bad dreams too.
It sounds more like nightmares than night terrors to me though. I say this because you say she woke you crying and would not go back to sleep.
Generally a night terror involve a VERY panic stricken child with eyes open wide who is not otherwise really awake at all. The child will cry very hard, or more than likely scream a blood curdling scream. There is no way to wake them or stop it and it can last 5 minutes or a half hour or anything in between. Then they fall right back to sleep and do not even remember it in the morning--but it is traumatic as all get out for the parents

There is also often screaming about bugs crawling on their skin. And, yes it's very traumatic for mom and dad.

 

[BalooTheBear]

Deleted

 

[pilotwife_02]

I am sorry you are tired. It is so rough when kids keep you up. I am sorry your little girl is having bad dreams too.
It sounds more like nightmares than night terrors to me though. I say this because you say she woke you crying and would not go back to sleep.
Generally a night terror involve a VERY panic stricken child with eyes open wide who is not otherwise really awake at all. The child will cry very hard, or more than likely scream a blood curdling scream. There is no way to wake them or stop it and it can last 5 minutes or a half hour or anything in between. Then they fall right back to sleep and do not even remember it in the morning--but it is traumatic as all get out for the parents

I agree with this as well. DS1 had night terrors for about a year. He would wake up, freak out for a while and then just pass out like nothing happened. There was nothing we could do to help calm him, he would stare right through us as if he couldn't see us. He NEVER remembered them the next morning, thank goodness.

And yes, it was the most traumatic thing the first couple of times I saw him go through it. I had them when I was a kid, so I knew how things would go, but it still stunk!

 

[NHdisneylover]

There is also often screaming about bugs crawling on their skin. And, yes it's very traumatic for mom and dad.

Mine never did that, thankfully. Just screamed and screamed incoherently for about 15 agonizing minutes.

My poor parents. They told me when I was grwon that I had them from age 2 until almost 13 I would scream 20 or so minutes at a time. They said sometimes I would go up to 6 months without them but at others times I would have 3 or 4 a week for 5 or 6 weeks at a time and then 3 to 4 weeks off and then start again.
I do remember them asking me often if I had slept ok, had bad dreams, etc and seeming really concerned but i had no idea why until they told me that after the first time my son had one. I am soooooooo glad he only had them once in a while and for only about a year.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Both of my kids had night terrors as well -- they were 2-3 though. It sounds silly, but when DS was going through it (he's 5 years older than my daughter), I bought a dream catcher on a business trip to Arizona. I explained the story about it, and put it in his room -- never had another terror. When DD then went through it, I put it in her room -- same story. It was truly amazing.

OP,

 

[mamamary]

My DS had night terrors for awhile when he was young - it was awful! And then one day they just stopped -

Wow this brought back memories. My son had night terrors too. I think it lasted at least a year. Thank goodness is wasn't every night - maybe every few weeks or so but boy did he used to scream.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Is she getting too cold?

I have reoccuring nightmares when I get cold while sleeping. So does DS4.

Can you pack on an extra blanket after she's fully asleep?

 

[cybrkitn]

DS8 went through both the nightmares and the night terrors. Both were difficult.

For nightmares, DH and I would allow him to stay with us for no more than an hour; enough to let him calm down. Usually he would fall asleep and at that point, I would pick him up and take him back to his room. The few times I didn't do that was b/c DH and I had to get up in about 2 hours anyway, so it made no sense to bring him back to his room for that short amount of time.
There were also times where I would stay in his room with him until he fell back asleep. Once he did, I could finally go back to bed myself.

When he had night terrors, he would have them for an hour . I would stay up with him and comfort him. For some reason, a juice box worked wonders with him to get him to calm down . I don't know how I managed to survive this time, lol.

OP, I also offer my to you as well. You will get through this.

 

[pilotwife_02]

For some reason, a juice box worked wonders with him to get him to calm down . I don't know how I managed to survive this time, lol.

Funny you mentioned that because it seemed like after he reached the peak of the night terror he would always seemed thirsty and would ask for juice.

 

[golfgal]

Is she potty trained? If so, have her go to the bathroom when she does this. I know it sounds weird but a friend said her pediatrician told her to do that for her kids and they stopped within a couple days. We did the same thing with our oldest, stopped within a couple days, same with the twins.

 

[prncess674]

Agree with others that night terrors are completely different than nightmares. I am 36 and still occasionally suffer from night terrors. My family is well aware and I am usually good with telling friends about them if we share a hotel on vacation, but I felt REALLY bad that I had one when on vacation with a friend in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We were two single women staying in a hotel so we were very aware of safety. I shot straight out of bed, screamed bloody murder and was apparently pointing at the hotel room door. I scared the living bejesus out of my friend. Talking to her the next morning I felt really bad, because she said after she calmed me down by turning on the light and saying nobody was in the room (I must have still been asleep) that I just jumped back in bed and slept the rest of the night. Needless to say, she didn't get another wink of sleep. Night terrors are much worse for the outside viewers than the actual person having them.