Crying while asleep?

[mamarabil]

Does anyone's baby also do this? He is asleep but crying and mad. I've tried letting him cry for a few minutes to see if he'll stop but he just gets louder!

Sometimes when I pick him up he stops crying. Sometimes he'll open his eyes and other times he just stops crying and is quiet again. He normally does this after being asleep for a while.

He rubs his eyes and head over and over again too. He sleeps with mittens on to avoid being scratched all over his face.

I'm not eating anything different so I don't think it's my breast milk. He isn't wet. He isn't hungry. Just that sad cry that no mother can stand to hear...

Someone please tell me if this is just another one of those "this too shall pass things..."

I think I've covered everything. Thanks in advance!

Mari

[KimH]

My DS does this too. Actually, he hasn't done it in a while, but when he was younger(less than about 3 months old, I'd say), it seemed to happen once a week or so.

I interpreted it as dreaming, but I am not sure if that's right. I know the cry you mean, it just breaks your heart! DH and I would run into his room but DS would be sound asleep. He would stop if we picked him up, but sometimes he stopped on his own, too.

DS is now over 6 months, and I haven't noticed him doing this lately.

Can anyone else shed any light on this behavior?

Kim

[lizajane]

it's called night terrors. they are in a bizarre level of sleep. you just need to help them trasition into a different level of sleep, by rubbing their backs, singing to them, talking quietly to them...

schuyler did this a number of times when he was smaller, and apparently, my sister did it several times when she was around 18 mos.

my mom said the dr told her to NOT pick her up, because it might scare her, but instead to touch her while she was still lying down.

[McQ]

Declan has started doing this the last few weeks. And he's pretty consistent about when (around 10pm, 1am sometimes around 4am). So I go into his room and rub his back and tell him that mommy loves him. It calms him down but it just breaks my heart.

Any ideas on how to stop this? I hate thinking that he's having bad dreams much less night terrors!

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03

[Rachels]

Abigail does this occasionally, too. It's heartbreaking! Usually she settles if I snuggle her a little. There was once about a week ago that she just couldn't be soothed. It freaked me out. I picked her up, and it was like she didn't even know I was there. It took about ten minutes to get her calmed down. Yikes!

On the funny side, she also now sometimes talks in her sleep. From what I can gather, she dreams about monkeys, noodles, and her stroller.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[sntm]

LOL -- i would love an insight like that into baby dreams. DH is a talker, maybe jack will be too.


shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03

[jennifer13]

I helped a friend research this whose baby was having night terrors, what I remember is: 1) it is a transition between sleep stages; 2) baby does not remember it, it is not actually a nightmare; 3) don't wake her up because all she knows is that she is being roused, often by an alarmed parent who may be shaking her, shouting, etc.; 4) can be triggered by being overtired; 5) more common in toddlers than babies. Also I think it's supposed to be more common earlier at night, while traditional nightmares happen more often later at night during deeper stages of sleep. HTH

I can't remember what to DO about it though! But I was there when her baby had a night terror and it was awful. Good luck!

Jennifer
Mom to Norah 5/23/03

[votre_ami03]

Mari, My son does this too. It's a horrible whimpering cry.

Thanks Liza & Jennifer for the reason!

Christy & baby Nolan 7/22/03

[McQ]

I was just reading up on night terrors and boy is it scary. Fortunately Declan's cries are only a couple minutes. Some of the stories had kids thrashing for an hour and totally inconsolable. Frightening stuff.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03

[nohomama]

An hour? I wish. Last night I was up with Lola from just after 7:30 p.m., when she went down for the night, to 3:00 a.m.. Yes, that's right, 7 1/2 hours of high pitched screaming (and I do mean screaming). I went from wanting to console her to wanting to slit my wrists. Thankfully though, I knew what was going on because my brother experienced night terrors when we were kids.

Interestingly, when I spoke to my ped about it today he said that in instances where the child can't be easily soothed, the best solution is to definitely wake them up. Granted, he's no sleep expert but I think the rationale is if you can't get them to "reset" themselves, waking them up and starting the sleep process from the scratch is the best bet for a good nights sleep.

[McQ]

Oh Sarah. How awful for you and for Lola!

Here are some links that I found when I was searching last night. Some of the sugesstions are to wake or not to wake up, to turn on the light, feet in water etc... Don't know what will work for you but will hope it gets better soon!

http://www.nightterrors.org/
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/nghtter.html
http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/sleep/terrors.html

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03

[jennifer13]

Oh my god, that's awful!! I hope it gets better soon!

Jennifer
Mom to Norah 5/23/03

[votre_ami03]

(((Sarah))) I am so sorry! I think it's bad when Nolan fights sleep for an hour or 2. You poor thing.


Christy & baby Nolan 7/22/03

[nohomama]

Allison,

Thanks so much for the links. I'll look at them this weekend when Dan gets back into town and I have more time to sit down at the computer. (An aside--the !@#$ always seems to hit the fan while he's away and I'm temporarily a single parent. Parenting is a difficult job no matter what your circumstances, but the folks who are fulltime single parents must be imbued with super human powers and vast amounts of patience.) Thankfully last night Lola got 12 hours of restful sleep. I myself didn't get quite that much but I am eternally grateful that the night was restful. That was worth more it's weight in gold.

[mamarabil]

Thanks everyone! At least now I know what I'm dealing with! Good luck to everyone in the same boat!!!

Mari