Sleep Help!

Hello All.
It has been a long time since I have posted anything on here, but I do get a lot of good advice reading the posts. My B/G twins turned 2 on 12/31. They have been awesome sleepers, in fact they have been in toddler beds since they were about 18 months old because my DS decided he was going to show mommy how he could climb out of his crib. The did awesome adjusting to the toddler beds. For about the last 2 weeks Ayren(DS) has been waking up in the middle of the night and coming out into the hallway and just screams and cries, and he thankfully has not gone further than just outside his door.. Well when he wakes up he cries, screams, and can be mean.. There is nothing we can do to console him.

Last night, or I should say this morning at 1:00 he woke up doing all this, and wandered into the living room. I heard him get up so I jumped out of bed. There was nothing I could do for him, so I just sat on the couch and made sure he didn't do anything to hurt himself, and let him cry it out.. He was throwing blankets, pillows, and just screaming and crying.. I am scared to lock him in their room at night, but I am scared not to.

What is this, and what can I do? Is he having nightmares or night terrors?

Thank you for any help!
April

 

Sounds like night terrors to me. This happens to Naomi once in awhile, mainly when she is overtired. Its really scary because they appear to be awake but aren't! When it started happening here I knew what it was because it used to happen to my nephew so I had heard stories from my sister-in-law. She told me you can't wake them up and all you can do is make sure they are safe and wait it out until they stop. That is what we do, I usually just stay by her and keep saying her name and eventually she calms down/lets me hold her and then she goes right back into "normal" sleep. I think they eventually outgrow it- my nephew did. Good Luck!

 

Zoe started this at 18 months. It would freak me out until I realized she was not really awake. For the next three years we would go through this two or three times at night. She would scream, walk, throw things, hit, you name it. They thought putting a new set of tubes and taking her adenoid would help, but it kept right on. Then we decided to have her tonsils removed because they were huge. She wasn't sick, but her tonsils were always swollen. It has been the best thing EVER!!! When they took them out the doctor said they were infected and were filled with puss. She said most people are older when that happens and will notice the pain, but that Zoe had it for so long the pain was normal to her. The doctor also said because the tonsils were so big it was probably blocking her breathing passage and that was why she would scream and have the night terrors. Since the surgery she sleeps through the night. Occasionally she walks in her sleep and now she has conversation in her sleep but rarely! Good luck!

 

My first thought was night terrors as well. I'm sorry I can't give advice, but my best friend's daughter had them and eventually grew out of them. :hug: to you, I can not imagine how you must feel to see him going through this.

 

My dd does that also and my pedi says that they are night terrors. I know your not supposed to wake them but sometimes I cant stand to watch her so I usally do. My ds is 11yr old and had one the other night. He was looking right at me but felt like right through me I'm not sure if that makes any sense but he did remember a few things the next morning but not everything.

 

Definitely sounds like night terrors. I know this sounds odd, but our pediatrician gave us a tip to try. When you go to bed, or sometime before it would normally happen interrupt his sleep a bit. Don't wake him up, but just enough to make him roll over, shift positions, turn his head or something. It doesn't always work and I'm a bit chicken about doing it, because if Logan wakes up he is up forever, but when I sneak in to cover him up he usually rolls over and it does seem to have cut down on the instances. I should say I don't know that Logan is having true night terrors (he's never seemed awake but been asleep or been aggressive), but it's reducing the instances of night waking. Good luck!

 

I agree with PP's my oldest used to have them. He still walks in his sleep sometimes, but he grew out of the night terrors. Our Ped said the same thing about waking them up a little an hour or two after they go to sleep. She said that when they are overly tired they are more likely to have them. Even though he still took naps most days, I think he was just a very active kid and wore himself (and me) out.