Nighttime meltdowns

[Jackshouse]

My DD is 2.5. 2 weeks ago she was happy for the dummy fairy to visit and the first night was difficult and for the first week she woke frequently and could not settled back to sleep so I stayed in her bed. This is no problem. Last week she had a vomiting bug so I was in her bed a lot. In the last few day we have had 2 occasions where she has woken up in a hysterical meltdown with continuous screaming refusing cuddles, she has been hitting and pushing us away and the same times as wanting her to be there. First time it was 6 so we just got up but yesterday it was at 2 and lasted over an hour. I have early pregnancy tiredness and last night I struggled to cope with her behaviour. Please help!

It sounds like it could possibly be a night terror. They are awful, but I find just either sitting nearby but not intervening, or doing something to fully wake mine out of it helps. Sometimes we literally just turn all the lights on and it wakes her up completely so then she can go back to sleep again.

And night terrors do tend to happen when there is a lot of change going on, so big developmental changes or other transitions or after illness, so it sounds like you've had a lot of that recently.

I’m not sure if it was a night terror. She was better with the light on but she was definitely awake for most of the time. I had wondered if it is because she has not got the comfort of the dummy and then she gets out of control. Last night she said she wanted to be sad.