My 2 year old (27 months) has never been a great sleeper, but we've had good stretches of him and his twin brother sleeping through the night. For a few weeks now, his twin has been sleeping through almost every night, but he has slept through ONE night.
He wakes up usually between 2am and 4am screaming his head off. He is absolutely hysterical. In the past we have always waited when they cry out to see if they will go back to sleep on their own, but he is just so upset it's hard to do that. DH or I will go to him and have to lay on the floor next to his bed until he's asleep again. Sometimes he wants to hold our hand or have us pat his back, but sometimes if we touch him it makes him even more hysterical. On the worst nights he will end up coming to bed with us and will fall asleep quicker when he's in our bed. We've tried having him sleep in a sleeping bag on our bedroom floor but that doesn't help, only if he's in our bed is he happy.
However, even once he's in our bed he will often still wake once or twice. He'll go from being fast asleep to screaming. We can usually settle him quickly when he's in our bed though.
Not sure what's causing these very upset nightwakings. I've read a little bit about night terrors and I don't think that's it because he does wake up fully most of the time.
Has anyone else had this or found ways to help with this? I've read just about every sleep book and website I can get my hands on and am just out of ideas.