# Nightmares



## skyblu (Sep 9, 2010)

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas with your little treasure's.
Ours was fantastic and every thing we had hoped it would be and more, until the last 3 nights. 
For some reason, lo has been having awful nightmares where she is crying uncontrollably and it is only when she wakes up properly and has a bit of water she finally calms down. The crying can go on for 15 minutes but when she does wake up and calms down she goes back to sleep more or less straight away.  She shouts mummy, mummy, mummy, and then daddy, daddy, daddy a few times and then shouts scary, mummy scary, scary mummy.(I am hoping she telling me she scared not that I'm scary ) The whole time she is sobbing and her eyes are still closed, so I am assuming she is still in a sleep state. 
She has had nightmares before but nothing like this. The health visitor has always told me not to ask her about the nightmares and never question her the day after as she wouldn't remember anyway.
I can't think of anything as to why she is all of a sudden having nightmares, only that we went to one of her nursery friends birthday party a couple of days ago and there was a little boy there dressed up as a dinosaur and going wah wah in her face. This same boy did this at her nursery Christmas party and I told her to do it pack at him which she wouldn't. When she saw this boy come in to the party her face dropped and came straight to sit by me instead of playing with her friends. After a while she did join her friends but this boy did the wah thing again, I tried explaining that he is a little boy dressed up and pretending to be a dinosaur. 
After a few minutes he did it again while she was on my lap and I said to him  "can you please not do that as it is freighting ****** " to which he looked liked he was going to cry and said sorry.(bless, he was cute) Next his mother came over and I thought oh god here we go, but she just apologized to us and said she told her little boy not to do it again and fair play he didn't. There was no nightmare that night but the night after, last night and again tonight.
It happens between 9-10 pm and I think this when she would be in a very deep sleep where apparently most dreams happen.
It might be she remembers Christmas at her old placement or it may be an after effect on visiting her sisters on Christmas eve.I know it is quite normal for toddlers to have nightmares between the ages or 2 and 3. I just don't know, but it is heart breaking when she cries like that. 
Does anyone else have nightmare problems? OR any other ideas what could be causing them? OR is it just that she is a healthy toddler and it is quite normal.

Skyblu.xxx


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## aaa is a MUMMY (Oct 13, 2009)

Skyblu   its awful to see them so upset. Bubba had a similar thing after her bday she was actually looking at me screaming and lashing out but was clearly still asleep thankfully it only lasted a few nights and she settled down again. However we haven't had a full night since she just shouts out normally around midnight if we ignore her it escalates but if we go straight in she instantly settles. 
Hope it settles down for u soon. Xx


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## Poppets Mammy (Mar 7, 2011)

Hi Sky   we've experienced exactly to same style nightmares that you've described and it's always when something has upset or unsettled her in some way. We normally get 'Nooooo Mammy No go' while she's screaming the place down and crying uncontrollably. Same as with you she only calms and settled once she wakes up, has a drink and a cuddle then she goes back to sleep. Normally lasts a few days then stops. 
It could be Christmas especially if she's had contact with sister. It could be the whole boy playing a dinosaur. It could be anything and your doing exactly what I do which is search for answers you might not find and the nightmares with prob stop before you get any insight into the cause. It's really hard not knowing what's rattling them isn't. Kids are complicated little things. Hope it all stops and gets back to normal soon   Xx


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## MummyElf (Apr 11, 2013)

My daughter at times cries in her sleep - properly cries - and when I go in she's sound asleep. It always makes me sad inside because you don't know what's causing it, and if you're anything like me, blame yourself! I stir her gently then stroke her and she goes back off.

My niece was 2 on placement and suffered from regular awful nightmares, most especially at times of change like contact with siblings, visits from SWs (which we now get too since our son was placed...daughter is very upset after their visits now), Christmas, and just anything different. If there was too much done in one day she'd melt down, she was also scared of loud noises and new things.

We just cannot know what scares or upsets them, maybe even seeing someone who looks like an abusive birth parent etc. I heard one story where the adoptive grandparents had the same car as someone in birth family and the LO wouldn't go near the house. Bless them, they changed the car! X


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## NancyS (Oct 16, 2013)

These sound like night terrors, which is very common at this age but also more common during periods of stress

Our AS has them a few times a month and it's horrible - it's always about 2 hours after falling asleep and often if he has missed his nap and is over tired.

I think my AS is also easily distracted and happy during the day - and then possibly processes some of his grief whilst sleeping

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/night-terrors/Pages/Introduction.aspx


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