what do babies dream?

[joyakshi]

I swear Roslyn woke up from a nightmare last night. Do babies have bad dreams?

[Pookietooth]

DD often cries in her sleep. I'm assuming she's dreaming about crying or something. She is a fussy baby awake so it makes sense. Other times she nurses in her sleep and I'm guessing she's dreaming about nursing.

[VTtoPSUmama]

Oh ya my 8 week old DS has been sleeping and started crying. Then he woke up and was fine. Maybe they dream about losing there moms?

[Serenyd]

The first time I couldn't get to dd right away when she cried, she had nightmares about it afterwards. She was whimpering and crying in her sleep, and you could tell she was in REM. She was only a week or two old then.
She's a pretty sensitive kid. She gets her "feelings" hurt easily ... She's going to have to toughen up with two older brothers!

[Fujiko]

DDC crashing...
My dd, ever since she was born (but it's much more rare now), would suddenly start bawling out of a dead sleep for no apparent reason. It was startling, but I hear it is quite common among young ones. I try to wake her up as I comfort her, or else she will keep crying. I sit her up, bounce her, touch her face gently, and speak soothingly in her ear. Once she is awake, I comfort her back to sleep (before she was nightweaned I would nurse her down, natch). It doesn't seem to bother her when she wakes the next morning.

[Friendlee]

Talula full out laughs in her sleep. I would give anything to know what she's dreaming. It is positively adorable. Every once in awhile her giggle will immediately turn into a grumpy frown and then dissolve into just a regular peaceful, sleeping expression. Dr. Sears talks about "sleep grins" but actual laughing/fright is another thing. I wonder how anyone would go about studying this.

[joyakshi]

wow, hold old is Tallulah that she laughs out loud???
does she do it awake too?

[Aufilia]

Tristan has laughed out loud in his sleep (REM sleep, just a couple minutes after he conks out in my arms) 3 or 4 times this week. It really IS adorable, and totally fascinating, because his sleep laughs are just jollier than his waking laughs. He doesn't laugh all that much when he's awake and when he does, I'm not always even sure his waking laughs are really laughs! Whatever he's been dreaming about it must be really, really funny.

[Friendlee]

Lu started this at 4 weeks (she's 10 weeks now) - but still has never laughed when awake. I've read that infant laughs occur when they are startled but are instantly relieved at the same time as they realize they're safe. So I feel like they must be dreaming of some circumstance.

I look forward to the day when she's mature enough to interact in a way that *I* can actually make her laugh out loud while awake!