night terrors in the day?

[*Jo*]

Caleb just woke from his nap at 50mins, screaming and crying, i went in to put him back down again and he reached out for me, i put him down and left, he became distraught and terrified, screaming so hard i thought he was going to vomit, ive never heard him like this before. i went in to put him down and try and pat him, that took alot of work but i managed to get him calm again with patting, then i left, he stood straight up and began again, screaming like a banshee. I went in to put him down and he was jumping up, lifting his leg over the side of the cot rail, which he has never done before, he was frantic. I put him back down and left, had to go straight back in due to the intense screaming! the look on his face was pure terror. i took him out of the cot and he held to me for dear life, crying frantically for the next 15mins. the only thing that calmed him was me walking around, as soon as I stopped or sat down he would become frantic again, throwing himself around, pushing himself on me, flopping on the floor crying then coming back up to me over and over. even now 30 mins later hes pretty fragile, keeps just crying at random times, comes up to me and pulls onto my lap then flopping onto the floor crying.

Is this a night terror or what? I have no idea whats gotten into him

[*Becky*]

Hi Jo,
We have been through this with Henry during nap time and it is horrid!
The times it happened were when he woke early from a nap like Caleb and I tried to settle him - he just went craaaazy!
Tbh I could not work out whether it was pure annoyance at me trying to get him to go back to sleep or him being OT. Thankfully it has not happened in a while.
Hugs
bx

[Tweakster]

he times it happened were when he woke early from a nap like Caleb and I tried to settle him - he just went craaaazy!

Finn just did this over the weekend.  Both naps.  The first day his blind flew up and probably scared him.  He was inconsolable and only had a 1 hr nap.  Yesterday he managed 2 hrs nap but still woke hysterical.  He was face down and crying.  When we went in he went ballistic, doing much like you describe.  He was doing that exact thing, I was sitting in the chair and he would come over and want to be up and then freak out and flail himself on the ground.  It's like he didn't know which end was up!

I figure it was OT-related but really interested to hear what others have experienced.  I wonder if the blind incident has ruined naptime for us :-(

[<Catherine>]

We've had this both naps over the weekend too, waking early and in a complete state, exactly as you describe!! What's going on with these kids - do they all get together and hatch a plan against us Mums??!!!

My opinion is that it's OT. Ollie had night terrors recently and this is slightly different, only very slightly but there is a difference. With the nght terrors he was so asleep, and nothing I could do would help him, or wake him, he just had to thrash it out. This weekend he did seem to be awake whilst screaming, his behavior was very, very similar to when he was having the night terrors but I could calm him (if only a little), unlike the night terrors - sounds the same with Caleb, Jo?. He also eventually went back to sleep and seemed so tired so I'm confident it was OT with him.

[Tweakster]

I do feel it is OT too here, we know that Finn has had some shorter days last week, 10 hr nights and a couple of shorter naps, it caught up to him.  Last night, by the grace of God, he slept nearly 12 hours.  He NEVER does that.  The first time an early bedtime has actually worked here.

It's a shame that we can't extend naps because after that episode it was clear he was still exhausted.  He just wouldn't go back to sleep, he was frenzied.

[<Catherine>]

We did an early bedtime last night too, and also had nearly 12 hours, not so unusual for us, but still just confirmed the OT for me.

We managed to extend the naps slightly but not much and he definitely needed more.

[MummyToBen]

We had a phase of several weeks where Ben would frequently wake up from this - it was HORRIBLE - and there were occasions when it took up to an hour to settle him down (not settle down to sleep - just to stop screaming!).  I am pretty sure it was OT, and we have had occasions like this at other points when it is clear in retrospect that he was overtired rather than in pain or anything else. 

xxx

[*Jo*]

Ok so the general consensus is OT, he's been doing 12.5 hour nights lately but I figured that was just because he's only been doing 1 hour naps and needed the extra sleep. His tantrums are getting pretty bad when they happen too, yesterday he threw a fit where the scream was pretty much like the one we had where he woke from the nap, DH just said "man, I guess the older he gets the more intense the crying huh?" I didn't know what to say.
Also he's been crying when we put him down for a nap, only for about 30 seconds or so but usually we don't have any crying, I thought maybe he was UT but it's 6 hours A time at the moment (while we are trying to get set naptime back) so it can't be that

[~*Nicole*~]

DH said Ava did this the other day mid-nap but that she didn't really "wake up" and he thought it really was a full blown night terror. He actually lifted her and laid her on our bed and lied next to her. She thrashed around, crying/screaming and then fell back into a deep sleep and continued her nap on our bed. Ours was def. OT.

[LucySol]

i read somewhere when my ds was having night terrors that they dont usually happen till around the 3rd birthday,which coincidently was when he was having them xx