toddler nightmares

[Kveta]

DS is 2.8 yo, and seems a pretty typical 2 yo (in other words, fluctuates between delightful and horrific, often within a 5 minute period). His sibling is due last week any day now.

Recently his sleep, always pretty crap, has taken a nose dive - partly due to changes in his routine (he's stopped nursery since I've been on maternity leave), partly due to ear infections, which are being treated by his ENT consultant.

However, it seems now he is having nightmares - he wakes up in the night crying and shaking and saying 'scary black dog' and 'no dog!' and takes a while to calm down.

He recently started howling that hairy maclary was in his bed, so we assured him that he wasn't, and have stopped reading Hairy Maclary to him (even though he loves the books). He has 3 cuddly toy dogs which he will not go to sleep without.

So my question is, I guess, what, if anything, can we do about this? and is there any point when his life is going to be changed so much in the next week or so?

No advice, bloomin wish I did, but we're in exactly the same boat! Started in earnest when we put dd into her big bed. Didn't you recently do the same with your ds?

Dd is 2.9 and has always sleep talked but now has sleep tantrums and can shout for up to an hour before crying lots. We've found they start when her covers are tangling her or she's cold so we've tried to secure her well which has helped.
I've just got to hope its a phase! I have a little talk before bed to try and ensure she goes off calmly but don't know what else to do. M-i-l assures me its an age thing!!

thanks elly yes we did move him. maybe it's just the imminent new additions to the family that is setting them off?

DS sleep talks too, maybe they just have very active imaginations? No fun though, is it?

Does he have a torch or light he can turn on himself to show that there is nothing bad in his room?

Have you talked to him about dreams, how they are just pictures in your head? Maybe help him to make up a phrase like "Go away big dog!" he can say to feel a bit more in control.

I would encourage him to play with his dogs during the day, maybe gentlly encourage a game where you escape from a dog or shut it in a kennel or whatever.

Its definitely a significant time with their imagination developing I think.

I know a few of her tantrums are the result of her frustrations in being unable to adequately communicate her thoughts during the day. So I have to have faith that this will pass with age but do have concerns about how our new addition is going to affect her sleep. Nothing I can do about that until it happens I guess!

Hope you get some decent sleep!

My dd has really bad sleep tantrum/night terror type things. Getting cold can trigger one as mentioned above, but the main trigger seems to be overtiredness (combined with any sort of stress makes them worse). She was five recently and has been having them since two-ish with one very bad patch when she started reception in the Winter term. Now they are fairly infrequent thankfully.