DD1 (2yrs 7mths) is waking every single night at 1am (nearly precisely) and screaming the house down. she says it wasnt a nightmare/bad dream etc but she is inconsolable sometimes.

when she calms down a bit we either 1) put her nightlight/music on and leave her to go to sleep again, 2) give her a cuddle in her bed and she goes back to sleep, or 3) she comes into our bed; depending on the level of tantrum!

DD2 is 3 months old so we are on damage control trying to keep DD1 quiet - if DD2 wakes she is up feeding and staying awake for 1.5 hours.

I cant believe ive got DD2 to sleep through almost perfectly since 5 weeks and DD1 cant sleep through!!!

any solutions? thanks

It sounds more like nightmares/night terror type thing even if she can't verbalise it.

After talking to my mothers group it seems a lot of our toddlers about this age have started waking like this.

As soon as I saw your title I thought "night terror"

If its a consistent waking time, which sounds like you are having, some suggest waking the child 10 minutes before the terror normally happens.

Night terrors can be scary for the victim, and for the parents watching. My dd has had them, as had friends ds.

Hi, does it just happen without warning? Does she scream and thrash around? Does it get worse when you talk to her or touch her?

If so, could be night terrors. My DD2 used to get them all the time. My DD's triggers are mainly when she is sick or hasn't been sleeping well but I have heard of food sometimes being a trigger too.

You could try a few drops of lavender oil under her pillow each night before bed. Lavender has a calming/relaxing effect. It works for my DD.

Google "night terrors".

I found that trying to placate DD while she was still having one would prolong it or make it worse. I know they it's heartbreaking to sit and watch but that's what I would do until she started to calm down then offer comfort and let her go back to sleep. She never actually woke up properly.

Steph

thanks everyone.

Im not sure if its night terrors (she has had a few definite ones though but not at the usual 1am time). she seems to be awake and sometimes says things like that she needs a drink or "2 easter eggs" etc. but then again sometimes she gets worse when i try to cuddle her (but not really freaked out like when she has had a 'definite' night terror).

I might try waking her up briefly at 12:45 and see what happend though.

I actually used to have night terrors as a kid (until age 12!!!) and i never remembered a thing in the morning - my poor parents were the only ones who were terrified


thanks again.

I thought "nigh terrors" as well. DS1 started getting them about 3 yo - whenever daddy had to be away for work, or wasn't home when DS1 went to bed. These continued until he was in his md-teens.