Eight month old suddenly waking up, hysterically crying at night

[Barbarajg]

My eight month old has slept fairly well up until now. Last two nights he has woken up (1.30am and 9pm), well, at least it looked like he was awake, as he would cry quite inconsolably, flail his arms about and lift his legs in the air. If I pick him up he wouldn't stop immediately a usual, but carry on with sobbing. His eyes seem to be shut, so I'm not sure if he's awake. This goes on for almost two hours, last night I left him to cry (with broken heart :-( ), and he didn't settle for about half hour. After that he'd whimper, and my partner found him an hour later sitting up in bed - asleep!!!
I read I might be night terrors, but he seems too young to get them yet???
He started crawling recently, and is also very whiny and cranky during the day (no problem with daytime naps), especially when he starts crawling, almost as if he's in pain???? I thought it might be developmental, but cannot find anything about it...
Has anyone experienced similar?
I'm dreading tonight....

How's it going? They can have bad dreams I think.

Just keep cuddling and comforting, I'm sure it's a stage. Mine have both done it from time to time. It could be trapped wind I guess, but unless you've changed anything that would be more unusual I think.

Could be night terrors - DS1 got them when he was about 7 or 8 months, although it is early.

He had the same sort of thing - crying loudly, almost screaming, but not really awake. We ended up on the 3rd night just leaving him to cry after 2 hours of holding him didn't work (on the advice of the hv) and he actually settled again within about 10 mins, although we were both in floods of tears listening to him .

If your DS is also acting differently during the day then it might be something else though, if you think it is pain have you asked the health visitor? Or tried calpol to see if he improves? Babies can't tell us about pain so they often show it with changes in behaviour, so if you think something isn't right then you need to go with your instinct and get it checked out.

If it is night terrors then I hope it doesn't last long - I think DS1 got them for about 2 weeks and then never again. It was horrible.

It seemed to have stopped now, thank goodness! But now he's waking 3-4 times a night, wanting me close/dummy/even breast too. Think it's separation anxiety, but

Oops! ....but I'm worried he's getting all the bad habits now- night waking, wanting breast/me close by, dummy....
I dunno how to go about it. Started not sleeping again!
Aaaaarghhh!!!