My best guess, given her behavior (wake up hollering, refuse all comfort from daddy with howls escalating, soothe almost instantly with momma and go right back to sleep) is that she's probably having nightmares. I wonder what toddlers have nightmares about. Mommy disappearing? It could also be teething pain, but I don't think that would soothe so quickly. She's also not been sleeping great during the day, which may be contributing to it -- apparently if they're underslept on naps, that actually contributes to worse sleep at night. Frustrating. It might just be a growth spurt too, in which case we try to ride it out.
But Kavi's fine now (trying to feed her dolly with the bottle of milk she just finished, insanely cute -- she also likes to have all her stuffed toys kiss each other, and it's hard not to crack up when the yellow monkey is kissing the huge stuffed bunny), so I'm going to go snuggle with baby and watch Bob the Builder.
Can we get through this? Yes we can!
(That would be funnier if you actually watched Bob the Builder. :-)
I have a grandson. I do watch Bob the Builder. It strikes me as excellent moral fiction if somewhat lacking in sophistication.
With all of love,
C. J. Czelling
Love that third photo! If I squint I can turn that patch into a NASA logo, and she looks like a mini astronaut in a training device of some kind.
Heh. It is actually a pretty cute blue owl, but if they sold mini astronaut sleepers, I would totally buy her one. Or several. Marketers, are you listening?
I seem to remember Katie going through a nightmare period at about that age. I don’t think it lasted more than a month, but I do think we ended up huddling in bed listening to her scream for a couple nights to retrain her. Not very fun.
If I remember right, babies Kavi’s age technically have night terrors, not nightmares. Now you’re going to ask me the difference and I’m not entirely sure except I think night terrors have no content, just a fear/flight reaction. No Freud needed.
Katie has started waking up at 4:00 in the morning again yelling for us to FIND SKARLOEY and THE BLANKET IS CROOKED AROUND MOLLY and the more usual I WANT A DRINK OF WATER!!!! More huddling and hiding is in store for us. Sigh.
Kavi’s adorable, like her Ma Ma
According to the piece I linked to, night terrors and nightmares are really different, and you even treat them differently — you’re not supposed to try to pick them up and comfort them with the former, but you are with the latter.
“When your child “wakes up” with a night terror, go in and check on him but don’t speak to him or try to soothe him. Your child will resist being comforted and will appear confused and disoriented. Trying to soothe your child will only extend and intensify the sleep terror even saying his name can make him more upset. Likewise, don’t try to vigorously awaken him. He may think you are attacking him. Instead, just let the night terror run its course, and stand nearby to make sure your toddler doesn’t hurt himself.”
Scary, but I don’t think that’s what Kavi has — she instantly calms down when I pick her up. Sorry to hear this doesn’t get better once they can talk!
Sorry to hear about Kavi not sleeping! River’s been a “bad” sleeper lately, too — waking up once or twice in the middle of the night, not napping well AT ALL, etc. Last night we waited when he screamed and both times he went back to sleep on his own (and suddenly, too! Very weird.), but other nights we have to pick him up and do the whole diaper change thing. I wonder if they’re picking up on something in the air… my guess would be election stress. Lord knows there’s a lot of tension floating around these days!
SO CUTE about her trying to feed her dolly! I can’t wait until River gets to the “symbolic play” stage!
I, too, would buy an astronaut sleeper for my baby. And what’s with the owls? I got River some Owly clothes from Old Navy recently, too!