Sleepless Mom About to Lose It!

Night terrors? It's about the right age, I think. I don't know, but I definitely would do whatever it takes to get her through this. I don't know what your doctor meant by "behavioral," but I wouldn't say it's a sleep training issue - she clearly knows how to sleep on her own. I think if it were me, I'd experiment to see if you can figure out what the trigger is. Does leaving the lights on help? What if you sleep in her room or bring her into your bed? If you can figure out what's bothering her, then you can work on fixing it and getting her back into her own room alone at night.

If she's overtired, that can cause sleep disturbances too. Check the recommended sleep hours for her age and make sure she's getting enough. If not, work on helping her to sleep more during the day. Don't assume that keeping her awake or skipping naps will help with nighttime sleep - what happens is the opposite, and the more tired they are, the more trouble they have sleeping.

It sounds really scary for her and exhausting for you! I wish I had more useful advice, but good luck to you.

It sounds like night terrors. We dealt with this with our first child. If you can get her truly awake, than you can rock her back to sleep or whatever it takes. She may seem to be awake, but may actually still be in a state of sleep. Try a damp washcloth on her face, or holding her very close to you in a death grip and rocking while making a humming noise, like "hhmmmm, hhmmm...hhmmm, hhmmm". These have worked for us. Blessings to you!

That sounds so familiar. What I did was get her a real small bed, like at the one at Ikea. It is low to the ground so she will not fall out. Put those stars at the top of the ceiling and put some soothing music in her room for starters. If that does not work, if you have room, put the bed in your room. she will be low enough, she will not fall out of the bed. The beds are really cute. I got my son a blue on they also come in pink. If not that, then try a bed low to the floor. She may feel like she is trapped in the crib. I had to take my son out of his really early. I even converted it into the day bed, did not work. I hope it gets better for you.

My daughter is 17 months old and refused to be in a crib. We moved her to a futon with a bedrail (babies R us for about $35) and she now sleeps at least 10 hours in a row and has been now for about 2 months. I co-slept for a while with her and then just started getting up once she was asleep and she did pretty good. I still have to lay down with her to get her to go to sleep but it's kind of nice, it's down time for me too. I don't think throwing up is behavioral. She sounds like she's truly upset or scared. My daughter did wake up one night recently and I think it was a night terror because it was as if she didn't even know I was there and nothing worked. I just held her until she tired herself out screaming. It was awful and I felt so helpless. It only happened once and she had skipped her nap that day and didn't sleep well the night before so I think it was from being overtired. Try her own bed, it can't hurt. Or if your crib converts try that, it's a lot cheaper than a new bed.
Good luck.

Hi!
Have you tried playing a lullabye tape and leaving on a small night light. If my son wakes and cries(which is very rare) I can just go in and put on his night time music and it helps calm him back to sleep.

Just an idea--I can feel your pain! I am expecting in October and already fear sleepless nights!!

L.

My daughter also does something similar. She did it very consistently around your DD age, but now only periodically. It seemed that her triger was overheating. We stopped using a blanket to sleep and if she woke up put a cool washcloth on her feet. Seems weird but like most old home remedies it works great.

Could they be night terrors? Our son who is now nine had them, they scream and their eyes are wide open but they do not see you or respond to you. Our next two did not have these. The oldest grew out of them but does now occasionally have bad dreams and sleep walk. Google night terrors.

L.