DS is 12 weeks old or so and often when he wakes up from his "cat naps", the ones that are only 20 min. or so, he kind of jolts awake and instantly starts screaming bloody murder. It's not an I'm hungry or I'm bored cry, it sounds like a panic cry. Like he's scared of something. It doesn't happen when he wakes up from the long naps very often just the short ones. I thought it was maybe waking up to find I'm not there, sometimes I'm in another part of the house doing housework, but even when I go to try to soothe him he continued to scream. Can they have dreams that scare them already or is it something else he's upset about? I feel so bad for the poor little guy because whatever it is that causes him to panic like that, I can't fix. Most of the time it doesn't matter what I do, he has to cry it out till he's ready to stop. Any ideas?

Have you looked into baby reflux? That could be why he suddenly screams out of nowhere. It may not effect him everytime and that is why he has longer naps too.

I just saw or read (not sure) that babies can infact have a bad dream....They are caused from them seeing or hearing something while there awake. For example watching a violent television program can trigger a bad dream later on. Even something we'd consider silly could frighten them...Like turning on the bathtub faucet.....to us it's nothing, but to them it's an elephant looking thing that makes a loud noise, whith water shooting out. The thing I read/saw said if you notice something day startle or frighten them to try and comfort them, and show them it's really not so scary.

It's hard to say weather ot not your little one is having bad dreams though....How would you ever REALLY know?

My son has reflux it's under control now, but before if we put him down shortly after a bottle, he'd be really fussy, and not sleep well....he never screamed though....but different babies can experience different symptoms.

Has this just started happening? Can you think of Anything that may have triggered this?

My baby is also 12 weeks today, and she has just started doing the same thing. I have read what Karen read...I read it in Baby Talk magazine.

My theory on being startled awake like this...it has started just recently and all of a sudden...but doesn't happen all the time...is that she wakes herself up with a flailing arm or leg and it just startles her...kind of like when we are drifting to sleep and our leg does that reflex thing and it wakes you up.

Who really knows??? Only them.
Gayle

It may be gas too. DD will wake up sharply if she has gas.

At that age, my daughter would wake up screaming her little head off but she would still be asleep! I thought it was a bad dream too but the Dr said that her little nervous system wasn't developed completely and was just working out some kinks. ????? Weird tho, eh?

My dd does the same thing. She could fall asleep and then 5 minutes later she makes this face like she is so scared and starts screaming. I feel so bad. It's amazing that they could be having bad dreams already. She also sometimes mover her eyes frequesntly and smiles and frowns too. The thing that gets me the most is when she makes noises like someone frightened her (gasping). Does anyone else experience this?