8mo waking up hysterical

[avocuddl]

Twice last week and tonight at around 9:30pm-10pm my 8mo has been waking up absolutely hysterical.

Instantly hysterical, still with her eyes closed crying so hard she can't breath. Every time when I have picked her up the crying has intensified and I've not been able to settle her, tried everything (rocking, sshing, going to another room, singing, light projector thingy and music, white noise, feeding, calpol, etc) and nothing has worked, taken about an hour and I think then it's just sheer exhaustion from crying so hard that she's gone back to sleep.

I've been in floods of tears as I just feel like I complete failure. 8 months in and I have no idea why my baby is crying and how to make her stop. Any idea what it could be and what I can do to help?

These sound like Night Terrors. Although I’m no expert on them so couldn’t be 100% sure. I don’t think they’re particularly common before toddler age but I’m sure they’re possible! NHS have some information on them, maybe worth a read?

www.nhs.uk/conditions/night-terrors/

They’re horribly scary to witness though, you poor thing. Rest assured if this is what they are, you’ll be getting more distressed by them than your DD. She’ll have no memory of them when she wakes up.

I hope they sort themselves out soon!

Hi,

I experienced this with my son around this age. In fact it would even continue with the nightmare even with his eyes open. It's terribly traumatic for you I sympathise. He actually was having night terrors, and was totally unaware of his surrounding and me trying to assist. In fact it alarmed him more as he wasn't aware it was me trying to comfort him. The only think I could do was leave him in his cot and be near and talk to him until he eventually woke up. He would try to fight me and get even more worked up if I picked him up. Thankfully it didn't last long, a couple of months max and infrequently. I hope it's just a phase for you and it will go away. In the meantime I would just make sure your baby is safe when they are flailing about and try to be reassured that this is something other babies have experienced. My son is 6 now and a great sleeper and no night terrors.

Hi my PFB is 9 months and has had four nights of just crying out and being dreadfully upset he is not a crying baby at all so the first time it threw me we thought he had hurt himself. Anyway did some reading and night terrors and nightmares are common apparently at this age (who knew!) so what we have done on the following nights is switched all the lights on talked to him and sung to him this has helpfully woken him up sufficiently to then be able to calm him down. On one night we thought he had woken up and we settled him for him to keep crying every ten minutes or so it took me 2 hours to settle him and on reflection I think I hadn't in fact got him to fully wake up the first time. How we have dealt with it might not be the right way but for now it's worked for us. Strangely he never has these during is daytime naps. I hope you manage to get your LO settled OP

Thanks all. Sorry to hear that your los have been through the same. I thought possibly night terrors but most that I read said it starts at 3yo so reassuring in a way to hear that it is possible at this age.

I will try your tips when it happens and try to wake her up first. Definitely agree that she seemed to get more confused and stressed when I picked her up.