Toddler waking up screaming

[GillL]

Dd is 2.8 yrs and has always woken in the night occasionally (say, once every 2 weeks or so) but recently it is getting worse. For the past 2 nights she has woken up screaming and has been unconsolable for about 10 minutes. Even after she has stopped crying she is so fragile that if you choose the wrong cup for her drink then the screaming starts all over again. She started pre-school 2 weeks ago and it seems to be waring her out. She goes to mum's in the morning, mum takes her to pre-school and then either me or dh pick her up about 5pm. For the last 2 sessions she has gone to sleep on the way home and we haven't been able to wake her up so we've left her. It was fine on Tuesday cos she slept right through til 6:30 the next morning. However, last night she was up at 1:30am for 2 hours and then again at 4 (although I don't know whether she actually went to sleep). I was so tired and tearful that I couldn't get up when her 12 week old brother wanted feeding at 5am. I thought I would have sleepless nights with new baby but not because of dd. Most nights the baby sleeps through from 11pm til 8am. I'm struggling to stay awake some days because of my toddler!

Please tell me she's going to settle down soon. I'm back to work in 2 weeks and I'm going to fall asleep at my desk every day at this rate.

hi my toddler 2.5 occasionally has spells like that. if you exclude all other factor which may, more directly cause anxiety, night terrors are the most likely cause I think.

will try and find a link

some info here

also the site raising kids.com has info on it

Thanks for your help sfxmum - I did consider night terrors but she's had those before and her behaviour was completely different. She would be hugging me one minute and then suddenly run away screaming and wouldn't go anywhere near me. If I tried to comfort her while she was like this then she would thrash about. When I realised what it was I left her in the cot until it finished. When it was happening she was very distant and didn't even look at me. She would be looking over at something at shouting no. What she's doing at the moment is screaming but she is comforted by a hug. Although she does cry periodically after that I think it is because she got herself into such a state before that anything sets her off again.

to be fair I only have one child so no vast experience but last week dd woke up screaming saying there were bees in her grobag and was hard to calm down then she came to my bed and kept saying there were lots of bees about, not crying but not sleeping either for about 2hrs.

I hope someone comes along with more knowledge and advice
can't be easy toddler and baby you have my sympathy

Hi GillL- sorry you're going through this... nighttime stuff is so wearing! {{{hug}}}
I would suggest its the change of starting pre-school- its such a huge thing going somewhere every day, dealing with lots of new people all at once etc. Of course being up in the night, and tired the next day impacts on how she deals with situations too.

Hope it calms down for you all soon.

Thanks EachPeachPearMum. I need a hug after the night I had. Hopefully it will sort itself out soon once she gets used to being there.

DD is also 2.8 and has started doing this with no discernable changes to her routine - I can expect to get woken at least once a night and it's wearing me down (I need my unbroken 8 hours)! Last night she was able to be coaxed back to sleep with a hug, but the night before nothing would calm her, she ended up in our bed weeping hysterically for half an hour. We too go through the 'wrong cup' thing - very frustrating when you're only half awake yourself!

I keep saying to myself 'it's just a phase, it's just a phase'... hopefully a short one! You have my sympathy...

Hi, my son had this from around 7 months to 18 months ish and again recently (he's now 3 1/2 ) he wakes up screaming and shaking but not too sure why as he's still too sleepy to talk to me. he went through a faze at the same time of being terrified of going to bed but we changed his bedroom around and so far it all seems to have settled down. I know I'm not much help but I just didn;t want you to feel alone, its so upsetting!

Thanks lovecat and jenjens. I've got my fingers crossed that I get a full nights sleep soon.