cpw: nightmares

[madameovary]

I went to check on BBQ and was he crying and whimpering and grimacing in his sleep. I tried rubbing his back but then scooped him up and gave him kisses until he woke up and gave me a smile. What do you do?

[doglover31]

Last night DS did this. He scrunched up his face and started crying in his sleep. It broke my heart so I snuggled with him in bed. And gave him tons of kisses and told him mommy was here. Then the rest of the night he was super clingy and only wanted to sleep snuggled up to me.

[scimomma]

I wake her up. We have tried to soothe her and it only seems to upset her more. The only thing that has helped is waking her up so she can see she's ok. Then I snuggle her back to sleep and she's fine the rest of the night.

[MoreThanSparrows]

I'm the special snowflake... my boys are older (8 and 6), so when they have nightmare, the only way I know about it is if they come to my room to tell me about it. As for LO, he's not old enough to have full-on nightmares yet, so how I deal with his has yet to be seen.

[ClassyMrsA]

I'm not sure it's nightmares or just discomfort/other stuff, but Lillian wakes herself up. She's an incredibly light sleeper so by the time we see her being upset, she's waking herself up crying. We do soothe her when she wakes up because she's usually crying/whimpering.

[madameovary]

It's so pitiful

[honeylemon]

DD is 19 months. If she's crying in her sleep, I just rub her back to try to soothe her. Most of the time she's already standing up by the time I get into her room so I'm not sure if it was a bad dream or she just randomly woke up.

DS is 4 and I don't know if has them unless he comes into our room at night and tells us. It's very rare for either of my kids to have nightmares though.

[oldbaylover1024]

So I'm the one that voted to let them be.

I had/have night terrors and the worst thing you can do is wake a person from a night terror. It's horrible. J sometimes has them now, but she's had them her whole life. When she was an infant we called them "baby nightmares." She would cry for about 5-10 seconds and go right back to sleep. Now at almost 22 months, if she doesn't wake up and stand in her crib, we let her self soothe. Often it's a passing night terror. Maybe 1 out of 10 times it's a dirty diaper or teething issue.

[muirmaid]

I voted SS because I can't remember DS ever having a nightmare. I'm sure he has, but my memory of the first year or so is one big blur. I'm guessing I'd probably soothe him but not wake him--he's always been a really bad sleeper and I wouldn't want to exacerbate the problem!

[mrsbutton]

another SS here - I haven't really noticed any nightmares/crying out in his sleep ...

He did it once or twice a few months ago, and I let him be... (he does smile and laugh in his sleep... caught it the other night, so cute)