20 Month Old Inconsolable After Sleeping?

[VixenAndCub]

So there's too issues with my DS.

1: He wakes up in the middle of the night just once most nights.
2: More rare; but he can become inconsolable after waking up (either from a nap or from sleep)

He has a rather strict sleep schedule, has done since he was 4 months old. He knows it well and goes down easy. It's just staying there/waking up that's the issue. Half the time he wakes up anywhere between 11pm-4am at least once. Sometimes he can self soothe, other times he can't. It's not always crying, most of the time he just wakes up and starts babbling and calling for us. I followed advice from professionals so he goes to bed with a full belly, temperature is always good and so on - but it's never guaranteed he'll sleep through even though he definitely can.

The worst though is when he wakes up screaming. It's not often at all, but when it does, it's so distressing. He stirs, starts crying, quickly escalates into screaming, hitting himself, throwing everything around. During this, no one can touch him, nothing can calm him down (no dummies or comforters, or cuddles) he is just inconsolable. It can go on for some time, no matter we try.

It's really upsetting to see. I feel useless. He can't tell me if it's pain or something else and I feel terrible 😟

[FATEdestiny]

It might be that he's not fully awake and conscious so is in a state of confusion.

How does he go from being awake to asleep at bedtime? Because if he drops off while feeding in your arms this can cause confusion upon waking.

What is his daytime sleep routine? Because light sleeping (resulting in wake ups) can be as a result of being over tired with not enough sleep over 24h/48h

[VixenAndCub]

@FATEdestiny

He has his bottle in bed while I read a story, and is awake when I leave with his comforter and he puts himself to sleep. Sometimes he'll chat to himself for a bit but never needs me there to get off to sleep. He's been good with that for a long time.

He typically has 2 hours in the early afternoon, and never allowed to sleep past 3pm or he just won't be tired for bed. One of the inconsolable moments happened today with his nap. He went down easy as always with no signs of anything bothering him, then only half an hour later I heard him screaming which is very unlike him and found him thrashing around hitting himself and banging his head on anything he could reach... It was very frightening. He didn't want to be held by me or my partner. We managed to get Calpol down him because we thought he was in pain with something and he eventually calmed down after finally taking back his Blankie and dummy. He rejected them for ages. Wouldn't go back to sleep though so I'm worried he'll be overtired now. It's 7:20pm as I reply and he's been put down after a calm bath 20 mins ago and he's still babbling to himself. Just worried if it's an overtired thing he'll have another session like he did earlier.

[Julitaa]

Wow. I was just about to start my own thread but I’m experiencing almost exactly the same thing. My 18 months old , she’s waking half way through her afternoon nap or during the night , screaming kicking rolling around. If I try to console her she’s pushing away tries to grab my hair or pinch and scratch. Nothing can be done , no distractions work , if I move away or my husband takes her she’s pointing at me to come back. It takes a while untill she calmes down and falls asleep. Doesn’t seem she’s in pain looks like a tantrum or nightmare ? Don’t know .. I hope it will pass 🙇🏼‍♀️

[Drumgley55]

Having exact same issues with our 20 month old, up til last week was sleeping through 7pm to 530am, is now waking most nights at around midnight screaming, crying, hitting himself, throwing himself about. It’s distressing to feel unable to do much about it other than be there til he returns to sleep. From what I’ve read it’s normal, especially related to development like starting walking etc, which is where we are this week.

[Julitaa]

A week has past and the best strategy for us to ignore it , she seems to be not fully awake , she cries and stirs and if I don’t touch her or talk to her she settles and falls asleep quicker ! Yey hopefully it will end soon !