14 mth old wakes screaming at 10.30pm most nights

[Megsy]

I have a wonderful baby girl who used to sleep through all night. Over the past few months though she has been waking quite regularly at around 10.30pm. She screams and sits up and takes AGES to re-settle (usually between 1-3hrs). She is not cold, wet, hungry/thirsty (refuses the bottle and once back asleep doesn't stir again until around 7am) etc. She has one day nap for around 2 hrs and goes to bed at night at around 7.30pm. At both sleep times she hardly needs anything at all to get herself to sleep (yes, I am VERY lucky). I just put her in her sleeping bag, sing a little song and put her in the cot. She sometimes makes a little protest cry for about 10 seconds but usually is completely silent! I have tried everything at night from rocking, cuddling, cry-it-out (I am not good at this... 15 mins is all I usually get to), patting etc but she still wakes. What's going on at night????

[Traveller]

You could try waking her about 20 minutes before she usually wakes and giving her a drink and a cuddle. This worked for us when DS1 was around the same age and used to get night terrors. By disrupting the sleep/wake routine we managed to stop the night terrors. It might be worth a try?

[Novella]

Dd2 did this at the same age. It was night terrors, when they scream/cry/open their eyes but don't wake properly. It happens when they are transitioning from be sleep cycle to another. Most kids grow out of it.

Dd2 was worse if she was over tired or over heated. If its night terrors there is little you can do and waking them is very difficult. Gentle cuddles or having a big temperature change (like going outside) were the only things that worked for us

Hope it doesn't last too long

[HotI]

3 hours after she goes down would be between sleep cycles.

i found getting to DD quickly if she woke, helped to settle her again more easily. i like trav s idea if the wake ups are at a pretty consistent time.

[milka]

My DS2 was a bit older about 16 months, but went from sleeping through to waking every night or second night at the same time 11pm and screaming. Like you I tried everything and it was after 2 hours he would normally pass out and sleep peacefully. In the end I took him out of his room (as he shares with DS2) and would sit in the dark lounge room giving him cuddles while he would lay there awake just staring. Finally his eyes would shut and I could put him in his cot.

This lasted for 8 horrid weeks and then suddenly he went back to normal sleeping through once again!

[chippyrabbit]

I thought my child is similar age and does this and i thought it was just her being her usual bad sleeper

Sorry no advice but now at least i know why she does it...and feel like a bad parent for getting so annoyed

[Butterfly Dawn]

Ds1 was like this for over a year.
I would give him a spray of rescue remedy to help his body relax.

A friend used a herbal sleep remedy a homeopath made for her and that worked well. Think it had Bach flowers that were good for her child.

Otherwise just cuddle them. Same as tantrums, holding them helps them to "know" they are safe

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unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. its not.
Dr Seuss

[TaRhLi.]

One of my twins went through the same thing as well, I think it was night terrors as he wouldn't wake completely and his crying was different to his normal sooky or hungry crys.

I would just pick him up and give him a cuddle until he settled down and then he would go back to sleep until the next morning.

Hopefully she will settle again for you soon.

[Three Graces]

Yep, I think it sounds like night terrors too. Our DS1 did that - it tends to happen a few hours after they've gone to bed (not 3am kinda times). He wouldn't respond to us and was still like he was asleep - only sceaming. We found that they only thing that stopped the screaming, was to put on the Night garden DVD. OMG - as soon as he heard the theme music, he would go quiet. We would sit up and hold him on our lap to watch some and then put him back to bed.
Our MCHN at the time gave me a handout which said not to wake them up or get them out of bed and they should stop crying/screaming and go back to sleep. Pffft. That never happened for us. He would just go on and on and on. He just grew out of it. Luckily DS2 didn't go through this. It's pretty full on, isn't it?

[~clover~]

My DD1 was about the same age when she started having night terrors. She was impossible to settle & wouldn't let me touch her.

Try the waking thing. I had nowhere to get this advice back then, but it worked when DS started doing the same