Please help - 10 month old crying in his sleep

[Piglet]

We must have been blessed with a wonderful sleeper with DS1 and we are now getting the payback with DS2. He has been an inconsitent sleeper at best, but a few months ago we felt like we were getting somewhere with his sleep. Then came the teething and the cold and the stomach bug... Now we are all feeling better and while there seem to be a few teeth coming through shortly, DS is a pleasure during the day, so they can't be too bothersome. For the past few weeks, we have been putting DS to bed as usual around 8PM (and he falls asleep on his own). At some point between 11 and 1, he starts crying. We give him a few minutes in case he calms down (yeah right). Then we go in, only to discover that he seems to be asleep all the while. He doesn't respond to our presence and he continues crying. We rub his cheek or his back, but that doesn't stop the problem. We pick him up and then he startles, cries and then falls asleep. It is as though we have to wake him up in order to get him to stop crying. We have tried ignoring the crying once we have determined that he is crying in his sleep, but it can go on for EVER(not that we let it, but it has gone on for 45 minutes+ the one time we let it go on). I am really worried that something is bothering him. Has anyone ever gone through this? We are so tired all the time that we are snippy with DS1, and generally cranky all the time. DS is wonderful during the day and naps decently, but he is a crank-monster when he first wakes up in the morning after such a strange night.

Please help,

[HeatherW]

We went through the same thing with our DD. However, she never went to sleep on her own, and now 2 is just beginning to. She would also cry about 1-2 hours into sleep at night, and during nap times. We would let her settle herself, but if it seemed to go on, we would go in and give her a back rub, too. We finally placed several dim nightlights in the room...and somehow, it helped, eventhough she ws never really awake while crying. Also, sometimes we would wake her, and it made it worse, so we stopped waking her and just soothed her with a back rub, or turning on a classical music CD to play very softly.
So, to make a long story short, it is normal, and your DC will be OK.

[goodnightmoon]

I'm not sure if this is what's happening in your case, but I've read about "night terrors" in researching my dd's sleep problems. During night terrors, the baby stays asleep while crying/screaming and can even have their eyes open as if they were awake. You might want to Google the term and see if that is what you're experiencing. I don't recall that there's any remedy to it, but it may ease your mind to know what's happening.

Laura
mommy to Eva Marie 2/16/05

[Elena]

I read about this condition in Richard Ferber's book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems. The book is notorious for the Ferberizing (CIO) method of teaching babies to fall asleep, but actually CIO is a small part of the book and he covers a wide variety of sleep problems, including your son's situation.

Please don't let the bad rep of CIO put you off, check this book out from the library. Ferber explains in detail what's happening with your son and gives specific advice to parents on how to handle it. I wish I could remember the specifics, it was something to do with the sleep phases.

[jerseygirl07067]

Yes, yes! Julia started doing this inconsistenly a few weeks ago. On two occasions it took her 2-3 hours to get back to sleep. We usually give her 15 mins or so to see if it passes, which once in a while it does, but usually it just escalates to the point where we have to go in and help her get back to sleep. She was previously a great sleeper since 4 months.

My ped said often it's caused by attachment peaking during this time, and any change in their routine or an illness, injury, etc. will set it off. He did not have many recommendations though, since every family dynamic is different. I'm sure hoping this will pass, otherwise I'll be pulling out my Weisbluth book soon!

Marcy

[buddyleebaby]

I just wanted to send you (hugs), My dd does this as well. I suffer from night terrors, as does my father (although maybe only two or three times a year now) so it wouldn't surprise me if that is the cause of dd's crying.
The only thing we can do is pick her up, wake her up, tell her she's awake, it's all right, mama and daddy are here. Then like your ds, she goes right back to sleep.
Night terrors are not like nightmares. They are VERY realistic. I hope that's not what's bothering your ds, but if it is, I personally would not resort to CIO.