My 2 year-old keeps waking up crying at night

I don't know what is going on, but all of a sudden, my DD is waking almost every night. We're talking anywhere from 2-6 nights per week.

Sometimes it's whining, like it was last night. She just lays there and whines. When I go in there, she stands up and says "bedroom" (she wants to come into our bed). We let her stay for a bit and then she'll usually go back to her crib without a fight.

But sometimes, like she did about 10 minutes ago, she's screaming. Of course, I bolted up the stairs and she was already fast asleep again.

It bothers me that she's having bad dreams, we REALLY limit what she sees on t.v. I can't imagine what the bad dreams would be about, other than Elmo, Sesame Street or anything on Sprout

Just wondering if anyone else is going through this. I'm starting to get worried and I'm wondering if it's normal.

Re: My 2 year-old keeps waking up crying at night

could it be night terrors? I have them (i've had maybe 10 in my life) and unfortunately, so does Em. She had one he*l of a doozy last night, screaming 'help me please, please help me'. I swear - i aged 20 years when she was screaming that...i wanted to die for her.

What happens with emma - she'll be hysterical crying/screaming....like something very wrong is happening in her dream/terror. she is not able to wake up - her eyes may open, but she's not 'in there'....she has no clue who i am, who dave is, where she is... it's horrifying. last night's was about 30 minutes of the screaming.

what i do - we turn on the lights so that the shadows in the room don't make things worse when she does open her eyes. i'll hold her and whisper, i'm here, i'm here, i'm here, mommy's here, mommy's here, mommy's here....things like that.

time has to pass - it's really the only way to make it stop... i'm going to speak to her ped. about it at her 2 year visit (coming up soon)

what i've read about it - that it tends to happen to children when they are 'overtired' (part of the brain is saying sleep and the other part is saying go go go ) or when they are transitioning from one level of sleep to another...

for ME - i have spoken to the doctor about it - i don't have them enough to warrant doing anything about it. I've been pretty darn careful about what i watch before bed, what i do, etc. (i haven't had one in about 3 years or more). I CANNOT go to bed anxious, if i am worried/anxious, etc. i have to take something like benadryl, which helps me fall into a deeper sleep faster.

i don't know if you got anything out of this whole long thing - i just wanted to let you know our experiences...

Re: My 2 year-old keeps waking up crying at night

Ryan is 22 months and going through this although for the past 4 nights he hasn't woken up. But he was waking up a few times a night SCREAMING his head off for no apparent reason. Johnny did the same thing at this age.

I don't think its abnormal at all. I think it's a phase..and their imagination is all over the place. Ryan pointed to his ceiling one night and was terrified of the shadows from his night light!

One thing i don't do though is to bring him in our bed. I just don't allow it b/c then I feel they expect it all the time. Don't know how your feelings are with that..but I would keep her in the crib, maybe rub her back and tell her to go to sleep. We had to let Ryan cry it out when he was doing this, i think it worked...good luck!

Re: My 2 year-old keeps waking up crying at night

DS is 3 - sometimes he SCREAMS, sometimes he wimpers. If I give him a sip of water he calms down. Last night he was very warm but insists on sleeping w/ his blanket.

He never wakes up so I don't know what it is. Its very 'ing