First experience of a night terror

Last night we experienced our first night terror (which for some reason I keep calling a tremor) with Baby B.

Baby B woke up screaming and thrashing around with strength I can only imagine the Incredible Hulk would have been happy with.

Because he has been restless in his sleep lately and suffering with his teeth, I originally thought he woke up crying in pain, but the screaming was so relentless we quickly turned to google.

It was the complete terror on his face that gave it away and the fact that no amount of comforting him was making it better.

I can honestly say that I found it all pretty terrifying and very difficult to watch. We took it in turns trying to cuddle and restrain him. He was like a child possessed. I took a nice backwards head butt to the lip and Daddy took to the guitar to see if a quick rendition of Ho Hey by the Lumineers (Baby B’s favourite song) could help rouse him from his nightmare sleep.

Nothing worked. In the end, Baby B calmed down and started to drift off lying on my chest into a peaceful sleep. In total I think he screamed and fought us for nearly 15 minutes.

Is there anything that can be done to help avoid night terrors!? (Not tremors, googling night tremors took me down a whole different path!) Without sounding dramatic, I can’t bear the thought of them happening regularly, even though Wikipedia assures me that the children don’t remember them – I think I will! I had read about them but I didn’t think they could be soo awful.

Just when you think peaceful sleep filled nights are coming your way…….

Poor little dude, he sounds rather sexy today with hoarse voice after all the screaming, but you would never know that he turned into a boy version of the Exorcist last night and Wikipedia says that I shouldn’t remind him!

Related posts:

Being up in the night with a toddler A question that I still don’t know the answer to…’Should we cuddle babies or leave them to cry?’ Any chance of some sleep?