5 month old waking up screaming

[xoguineas]

DD is just coming up for 5.5 months and up until this point has been a fantastic sleeper. She has been going down about 8.30/9pm and sleeping through till 7/8am which has been fantastic. This past week, however, she has been waking up screaming to the point of becoming hysterical anytime between 5-6am. Has anyone experienced this? I have been looking online but can't find much that seems to offer suggestion. It doesn't seem to be hunger as once she has calmed down she will often try to doze back off. The crying also doesn't change when her nappy is changed so I don't think it's that. Other suggestions have been the beginning of teething, however she has been teething for what seems like forever and has no teeth still so I'm not sure why she would just suddenly start this when she has been teething for a good month or so. Any other ideas? I'm not fussed that she's waking up so early now (I know we were lucky and it had to happen at some point) but I'm very worried about the way she is waking up as the screaming is horrible. Can babies have nightmares? I did wonder if it may be because I let her fall asleep in my arms and then obviously she is waking up by herself and wondered if she might be crying because she isn't being held anymore? I have no idea, but it's really starting to stress me out as I'm worried she's in pain or something and I can't help her.

Teething always messes up baby’s sleep
I’d get her checked over tbh it’s always worth a quick check up if something changes out the blue.
Does she wake up in the daytime if she naps screaming ?

Babies can have nightmares. It could also be teething. Teething isn't just the teeth breaking through it's also the teeth shifting/repositioning under the gums and can last a long time (until all the teeth are through) and vary in discomfort. Could it also be the temperature? It has been very warm lately and our little girl always has always had very disturbed sleep when she's too hot.

No waking during the day or any other time which is weird. She seems fine in herself as well, like no sign of being unwell but I'm thinking about getting her checked just to be sure.

@Havetothink That's true, she has been teething for a while so maybe she is about to have a tooth cut through? Not sure. The beat seems to be making her more sleepy during the day but it could be that it's bothering her in the night too actually. I've just been worrying as it seems to happen the same time every night and it's the most horrible screaming/crying. I wish she could just tell me what was wrong!

Maybe some extra milk before bed, in case it's the heat. Ours is older but she's been waking up much earlier than usual recently because she's so thirsty. We keep water next to our bed for when she wakes up, usually at about 5am.

It sounds a little like night terrors, but they usually come during the first part of the night, rather than early in the morning. Having said that, DS' night terrors were often triggered by being over tired and he also had periods of waking up completely freaked out and then unable to go back to sleep - almost always when he was overtired. So it might be worth starting to try a slightly earlier bed time? Aim for by 8:30 to start then perhaps bring it forward another 15 minutes at a time?

Of course, this will only help if it IS over tiredness. But that was almost always the problem with my children - their pattern would change and their needs would be different and we'd be scrambling to catch up. We are going through that with DD right now in that we THINK she might be needing LESS sleep finally (she loves her sleep) but she's not quite ready yet for a later bedtime so we're in a weird wake up early but be really tired by the end of the day phase.