ScreamFest
We now seem to have a once or twice a week ScreamFest that starts at about 1am and goes until 2 or 3 or even 4am. It’s the kind of blood curdling, non-stop scream that makes everyone in the house want to cry. Nothing seems to help other then constant snuggling. And we’ve learned that we cannot, even for a second, think that we can set down the sleeping baby and try to leave his room because he instantly wakes back up and the ScreamFest re-commences.
We have no idea what night it’s going to happen. And more troubling is we have absolutely no idea why it is happening.
We’ve read everything we can think to read. It seems like the ScreamFest could be the result of:
- Afraid of the dark – unlikely, his sound machine has a nightlight on it.
- Nightmares – maybe. But what can we do about nightmares?
- An early/weirdly timed sleep regression – from what I can tell sleep regressions don’t normally present as once a week sleeping problems. So probably not.
- Hungry – he’s not, we’ve tried giving him milk.
- Overtired – but as a kid who loves to sleep, it’s not often that he gets too tired because he just falls asleep if he’s really tired.
- Change in routine – it doesn’t seem to be constantly correlated to a change in his routine, so we don’t think this is it.
- Too much sleep – he’s pretty scheduled in his 7pm – 6am night time sleep and one 1 hour to 1.5 hour nap. If we try to keep him up longer he will just fall asleep mid-play, so I don’t think it’s he’s getting too much sleep.
- Teething – he’s not teething. He has 16 full teeth now, and there is no evidence that his 2 year molars are coming in freakishly early.
So, what do we do, when we have no idea what’s causing the horrific ScreamFest? How do we help him sleep through whatever it is that’s waking him up and upsetting him so much?
I just hate seeing my little guy so upset…
If you like this post, please feel free to share and please click the follow button on the side or return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey.
My Perfect Breakdown 
Makes no sense at all! Poor child! and poor you both.. Are you sure he is not in pain or something? Maybe an ear infection? Ear infections intensify only at night..
LikeLiked by 1 person
He seems completely healthy except for a slightly runny nose. And what doesnt make sense is that its sporatic, if it were an ear ache woulsnt it hurt every night? But we are at the point of taking a trip to the doctor because we just want to be sure. We are so confused!
LikeLike
Yes, get the Dr to check him out.A had a ear infection but he had none of the allied symptoms.. We found out only by chance (15 month vaccination postponed because of it).
I highly doubt its teething.. The remaining 4 molars shouldn’t come before 2 at the earliest.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have an appointment booked for tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted. 🙂
As for 2 year molars, my dentist said the earliest he’s ever heard of them coming is 18 months, and that is super rare. So, I desperately hope we get a break until at least then!
LikeLike
Night terrors? The Dr may have some insight if there is anything you can do. Hope it is a phase and passes quickly. Poor bubba.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I too hope this phase passes quickly! It’s so hard seeing him so upset! We have a dr appointment booked for tomorrow so hopefully we’ll have an answer soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lots of sympathy! Is he ever constipated? Darwin used to do that in the middle of the night when she was.
LikeLike
He’s never really been constipated. But, it’s something I’ll add to the list to ask the doctor about. Thanks for the tip!
LikeLike
Oh no! Poor guy and poor you! I definitely think a visit to the doctor would make you feel better. I hope it ends soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We now have a dr appointment booked for tomorrow, so hopefully he can either tell me the problem or tell me Little MPB is perfectly healthy and this is just a phase that we have to endure for a little while. I honestly think he’s going to say it’s just a phase which should pass eventually.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do hope everything is okay but I know reassurance from the Dr will help. Luke had his 15 month appt today and I got confirmation that these toddlers of ours are perfectly normal….especially if they are making their parents physically and mentally tired.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! Of course them being perfectly normal includes the parents being exhausted!! That sounds perfectly accurate!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know. I didn’t know if I should cry or feel relieved. Maybe both?! 😩
LikeLiked by 1 person
Both! Definitely both!
LikeLike
Oh no…that does not sound fun for anyone. Poor little MPB, I hope the doctor can shed some light😖
LikeLike
My sister’s little one got night terrors for a bit which sounds a little bit like this. Glad you can go to the doctor to get reassurance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing. Was she ablw to do anything to help her little one through them? I do think the dr is going to tell us he has the sniffles and the night screaming is a phase.
LikeLike
She would just comfort him when it happened and they went away after about a month or so. Xo
LikeLiked by 1 person
We are a few weeks into it, so maybe only a few more weeks left? I can hope! Thanks again for sharing.
LikeLike
My sil’s little guy does this too! Random episodes of nighttime screaming that can only be calmed by her holding him. I don’t think he even let’s her lay in her bed with him. There is no rhyme or reason to it and it just seems to be a weird random thing they have to deal with. He’s healthy and no sign of anything wrong at all so it really is frustrating to all of them. I guess I just wanted to let you know, you are not alone in this. I hope it passes and both your babies outgrow it soon. I’ve never dealt with anything exactly like that but I’ve had plenty of random nighttime wake ups with my boys and it’s always a rough day for both me and the child the next day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As crazy as it sounds broccoli does this to my little guy! It took me SO long to figure out that was the common denominator. Is there something dietary that could link the episodes together?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Growth spurt/growing pains? I’ve read they can be brutal. Maybe pain meds before bed?
LikeLiked by 1 person
My middle son had night terrors and the only thing we could do was comfort him and eventually he outgrew it but I really hope its not that! Best of luck! Many times I slept in my son’s bed …
LikeLike
I’m sorry to hear about the scream fest. My guess would be that it has to do with his age and the day care transition, and that he wants to make sure that you are there for him when he wakes up in the night. If so, this phase should pass quickly. Hope so! And sending strength – sleep deprivation is no joke.
My son would wake up screaming basically every night from the age of 3 months to the age of 3 and to some extent until the age of 6 and we never found out the reason (he’s 8 now and completely healthy, no allergies) other than that he has a very sensitive temperament and he’s quite anxiety-prone. Even now he talks, sits up and tries to walk in his sleep almost every night. If I recall correctly, co-sleeping helped a bit but not much, and we could not do it for very long because we were so exhausted and co-sleeping deprived us from the little sleep we got. We were also too exhausted to properly go through any sleep program, so perhaps some kind of sleep teaching would have helped, but we’ll never know. But I do believe it’s different with baby MPB because he’s slept so well before.
LikeLike
Oh, and when my son would wake up he’d be in some kind of half-awake, half-asleep trance state, we could not properly communicate with him, he would just scream and cry and did not seem to understand that we were there 😦 it was truly horrible. We just sat there and held him and talked calmly, and I do believe that was the only thing to do, but it still took ages to calm him down. But, now at 8, he is healthy and happy, prone to anxiety yes but very social, has a lot of friends, does well in school etc. So even in our pretty extreme case there was no reason to worry 🙂
LikeLike
I’m guessing night terrors too. Poor little guy…scary for him and hard on you guys! 😦
LikeLike