Are these night terrors

[prufrock]

Last night dd (15m) screamed for over two hours on and off. She is usually a very good sleeper (of course she would be, I did GF) Recently she has needed to be cuddled to sleep, but quite happily settles herself when she rouses slightly during the night.
But last night she woke at 10.30 screaming really loudly straight away. She was still lying down, cuddling dog and with her eyes tight closed, but she was rolling around quite a lot. I picked her up, but it didn't seem to have any effect - if anything she got more distressed when she was in my arms. After about 20minutes we gave her a bottle of milk, which calmed her whilst she was drinking, but she drank 4 oz, threw the milk away and started screaming again. She did open her eyes eventually, and tried to get out of my arms and walk, but I'm not sure how awake she really was. After an hour I put her back in her cot and stroked her back, and she did setlle, but 5 minutes after I left the room she was screaming again. She came to bed with us, and grumbled on and off for the next hour.
It was so frightening, becuase nothing I could do seemed to help her at all. Has anybody else had this at this age - other messages seem to show little babies or older toddlers experiencing night terrors, and I'm not sure that that is what this is - it didn't fit GF or Christopher Greens description exactly. And how do I deal with it - please don't tell me to leave her - I couldn't cope with being so useless, and it's not as if she can reassure me taht she can't remember it.

I've had these with DS - I was quite concerned at first but have learned that he is not affected by them so no longer worry. DS get's them occasionally if he's had a big day and has gone to bed very tired - I think over exhaustion is one of the causes.
DS will start screaming at us, yelling at us to go away, and then screaming for us to come back - he can't be placated and I've found the best thing to do is just ignore him, after a while (usu 5 - 20 minutes) his cries get sadder and quieter - I think he's woken up properly by then - and I can comfort and settle him back in his cot. If I try to talk/comfort him before this point I seem to be winding him up and prolonging the terror. He never remembers them the next morning, and I've learned not to let him get too wound up before bedtime (easier said than done). I agree though, it's horrible to see, and I hated letting him cry the first few times - but I could easily see that my presence was distressing him and by leaving him for a few minutes he had nothing to scream at and calmed down quite quickly.
It does sound similar to your DD's experience - there's a good thread on this subject that helped me. HTH