# Waking up with hysterical crying?



## 13710 (Mar 23, 2004)

My darling ds has woken up three times this week in hysterics. Usually when he wakes up at night he sort of gurgles and fusses until we attend to him, but these wakeups have been totally different - real crying (the kind with the jerky breathing, tears, etc.) and we are unable to console him in any way. The first time it happened I stripped him down, convinced that a spider or something had bitten him, but I can't find anything visible on his body that looks like it might hurt.

He has two teeth and certainly fussed when they were coming in, but nowhere near the level of pain I see in his face now. We're taking him to the pedi today for a well baby checkup anyway, so she'll look in his ears (he's already had 2 ear infections, poor babe







) but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

TIA!

Edited to add that he seems his usual happy self during the day... and has been napping okay. I think he's too young for nightmares, right?


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## Slackermom (Jul 23, 2003)

I don't honestly know if he's too young for nightmares...I would think one is never too young to dream, but I really don't know.

DD has started waking up very upset on occassion, too, and seems really frightened. Personally, I thought it was a developmental thing. She's recently developed stranger anxiety and gets a bit upset when I leave her (even with DH), and I think she wakes up frightened that I'm not there. We co-sleep, but she seems to be waking up already upset, so maybe she dreaming or just can't see me immediately when she wakes up?


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## Dechen (Apr 3, 2004)

My babe nightmares sometimes. Its not too young.

Its so sad when she wakes up crying like that.


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## Houdini (Jul 14, 2004)

My oldest had night terrors on and off from about 8 months until about 3 years. He would wake up hysterical and wouldn't let us near him. He looked wide awake and scared out of his wits. When he was old enough to talk he would just keep screaming for us to leave. The dr. said he was actually not awake, still in a dream state. He would be like that for 5-10 minutes and then go right back to sleep. He would have no memory of it in the morning. It was definately scary to watch, but the dr. said not to wake him b/c it could make him more frightened. I always did my best to wake him though, I couldn't stand to see him like that. Good Luck


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## 13710 (Mar 23, 2004)

Silly me. No matter how many times people say "the routine will change as soon as it is established" I really was beginning to think we had a nighttime routine that was manageable! Night terrors multiple times in one night was not on my agenda.

I know I am a bit of a hypochondriac... but I need to ask. We just had a friend's ds die at age 7 of a childhood cancer. All I could think of last night when ds was screaming was "what if it's a tumor or some other horrible thing?" How do you mamas reassure yourself that dc is actually okay when they are screaming like that? My dh points out that if something was really wrong, he wouldn't recover so fast and would be showing symptoms during the day.


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## Mama2Xander (Jul 3, 2004)

DS does this too sometimes. I really think it is nightmares because a couple of times I have noticed him whimpering/crying in his sleep a few seconds before he wakes up crying. He usually settles down fairly easily with cuddles and nursing, but it's so sad to see him so upset







I think the first time this happened he was about 3 months old and I also thought he was too young for nightmares, but that's really what it looks like. My mom remembered hearing somewhere that small babies can have nightmares and she thought I had done this too sometimes. She thinks it's related to those innate fears that we are born with (ie. fear of the dark etc.).


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## FireWithin (Apr 29, 2004)

Just want to second the idea of nightmares. My DS, 16 mos, had nightmares from early infancy. It was horribly sad to watch. We just cuddled him and whispered in his ear that mama and daddy were there. The couple of times that we intentionally woke him were the worst. I think he remembered the dream, or at least the feelings and emotions of the dream lingered.


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