Scariest Night of my life

[Ldavis24]

...a couple nights ago when DD woke up at 11:30 screaming her head off and continued to scream for nearly 40 minutes without stopping for more than 10 seconds at all.

She woke up crying hard (which is unusual for her in general at night) so I tried to just pop a boob in her mouth but she screamed even harder and pushed away from me. So I sat up and tried to cradle her and nurse her but she continued to scream mercilessly. At this point I started getting nervous because this kid is just not a crier. I am also alone in bed because I am visiting my mom and DH is back home. So I stand up with her and try talking to her and she is just getting louder and louder. Finally I am in full panic mode so I bring her downstairs to my mom who is already awake because she could hear DD all the way downstairs.

She takes her and tries to walk with her/bounce her etc. We strip DD completely naked looking for something to indicate this sudden screaming bout but there is not a mark on her, we change her diaper all the while she is screaming her head off still and hasn't opened her eyes once. I try to give her an icy teether just to see if her mouth is hurting her but she slaps it away with her eyes still closed and still screaming.

At this point I am in tears and ready to call the fire department/911 national guard whatever. This baby has never EVER cried for more than 20 minutes and then it was your usual fussy tired crying not a "I AM IN PAIN" cry...

After nearly 40 minutes of this she finally opens her eyes and starts to quiet but when I go to take her back from my mom she takes one look at me and starts to cry really hard again which makes me start to cry again. Eventually she calmed enough for me to take her and nurse her on the couch for a while and then I take her upstairs and she falls asleep like nothing happened at all. She is perfectly fine in the morning and is her usual cheery self.

I have no idea what happened and neither does my mother, her best guess is that DD had a nightmare and was maybe still partially asleep. I guess that could be it because I really have no idea at all. Has anyone else's baby ever done this. I mean DD is usually extremely mellow and rarely cries for more than 10 seconds about anything. It was pretty much the worst night I've had with her since she was born, made worse because daddy wasn't there to help at all!

[Alisse]

OMG .

Has she been having regular bowel movements? Is her tummy soft? Not suggesting that this could be it, just trying to rule this out as a cause.

[marinak1977]

I had something similar happen to DS couple of times. He would suddenly start crying really hard with his eyes closed and not calm down until fully awake. Then he just like that became calm and happy. He didn't cry for 40 minutes (more like 5 to 10) but it was still very disconcerting. He acted completely normal afterwards and I couldn't find anything wrong with him (he did burp on 1 occasion) The only thing I could come up with that made sense that he had a nightmare. I wonder if anyone else had an experience with this.

[2goingon2]

My son did exactly what you described when he was 7 months old. After about 30 minutes of it we put him in the truck and headed to the ER. Within 10 minutes of driving, he was passed out cold so we went back home. The following morning his right ear was draining. Yep - he had an ear infection. We had no idea as the only cold symptom he had was barely a runny nose. I felt so terrible that he was in such pain.

[Anastasiya]

How scary.

It honestly sounds to me like a night terror. I've heard they can start around 8 months of age, though they're more common in older children.

We've had several at our house, and they are frightening. Screaming, eyes closed, not recognizing anyone, can't wake them up and if you do it's worse, etc.....

Poor things!

[cristeen]

My little guy does this from time to time. Did it last night, in fact. Best we can figure is nightmares - mostly because he's screaming but he's still asleep. Once he opens his eyes he starts calming down. I know I've been plagued by night terrors my entire life, so I can only guess that he's going through something similar.

[em123]

My son did that once when he was around that age. It turned out to be gas, after a few farts he fell asleep. I still wonder what I ate that brought it on in him.

[marinak1977]

Originally Posted by Anastasiya

How scary.

It honestly sounds to me like a night terror. I've heard they can start around 8 months of age, though they're more common in older children.

We've had several at our house, and they are frightening. Screaming, eyes closed, not recognizing anyone, can't wake them up and if you do it's worse, etc.....

Poor things!

Hmmm... DS is not yet 12 weeks and this has happened. It totally looked like a nightmare - once he woke up he was happy.

[redvlagrl]

Maybe it was her teeth? We certainly had a few situations like this around that age. My tactic was to try and figure out what it was and if I really couldn't but it seemed like she was in pain we would give her some tylenol. This usually worked. And we are pretty un-druggie parents.

[Ldavis24]

Honestly I still have no idea what it is....DD is going to be 10 months soon ( I haven't updated my sig in a while) and this was the first time this has happened. She doesn't seem to be in pain teething wise and definitely no ear infection or something like that...I thought of gas that night and tried to give her some gripe water which literally will have her pooping 2 minutes after she takes it but she wouldn't even let me get near her with the syringe feeder...
She was fine last night so I am going to chalk it up to nightmares...I have and still do have extremely vivid and sometimes terrifying dreams so maybe she got that from me (like it's genetic)...Anyway I am very curious to hear about other babies doing this because it was just sooooo out of character for her. I really haven't felt that helpless since she was born.

[lisalu100]

dd did that saturday and sunday night, accompanied by a fever, but only at night, and then was fine all day. Two days later, she has a rash all over her trunk, and the doctor says it's roseola. I had never even heard of it! Nothing to worry about apparently...

[boobs4milk]

amelia did the same thing. we took her to the e.r. because the cry was the "omg...i'm in pain help me now" cry and she refused to nurse for about 5 hrs. it was gas and apparently she's allergic to bananas.


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[maptome]

DD does this all the time. Like several times a week. Exactly how you described. Screaming until woken up, and then suddenly calm. She gets up all night for other discernible reasons, so I know her hungry, gassy, cold/hot, lonely cries, and those are fixed by attending to the respective need. DH says it's nightmares, but that's such a scary explanation because there's nothing you can really do. AND what if it's not nightmares and you ignore a bigger problem. But there probably isn't a problem because DD has been doing this for 6 months or so and she's healthy. Sorry for the stream of conscious...just sharing my continuing thought process.

[j_p_i]

Lauren! I know how scary that can be!

This has happened only once with Olivia, and it coincided with a time when she was on a nursing strike, which I believe was caused partially by teething and partially by a cold that plugged up her nose. It sounds like it might be teeth? Or perhaps a nightmare, I know DD has had small experiences like that, a little squeal in her sleep and then she's back out... but never something full blown screaming like you described.

[Lillitu]

OMG that sounds terrifying and heartbreaking!

the only time my baby has had long bouts of crying not easily solved is gas and/or constipation. the only things that i have found that help are homeopathy for colic/gas, rubbing the tummy counter-clockwise while giving reiki, and eventually the boob as it winds down.

[katmann]

Have you ever heard of distress tantrums? Check out this article.

I'm so glad I read it because this just happened to DS last night. I think it was a nightmare that turned into a distress/fear tantrum. I couldn't nurse him and it took about ten minutes to calm him down, which is unusual for him. 40 minutes would have blown my mind. Something similar happened when we were traveling for Thanksgiving last year, but he seemed to choke on a heavy let-down and it sort of came out his nose, so I think that was the trigger that time. Nonetheless, it took almost an hour to calm him down.

[Ldavis24]

thanks katmann I am printing it to read as I type this.
after a half an hour of her screeching, I was going to give it another 15 minutes before I probably would have completely lost it and actually called 911...I don't know what I would have said, I mean I don't know how seriously a lady calling and just babbling about how her kid won't stop screaming would have been taken. I would probably have sounded nutty

[dislocator3972]

I've seen this once or twice in my DD. And once I felt some grumbling/bubbles in her belly right before she stopped crying. I couldn't hear anything, but it must have been gas that just wasn't moving and hurt her belly. Maybe that's all it was for your LO.

I'm sorry you had such a horrible night,

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

It sounds like it's a night terror. DD's had 2 of them and they are absolutely horrible. Unfortunately there's nothing you can do, but on the plus side they're not actually hurt. We expected some sleep issue since the husband is a narcoleptic who has occasionally sleep-walked, and I have insomnia, but night terrors are just...terrible.