My baby wakes up scared?

Question

I have a 10 week old baby girl and sometimes when she sleeps, suddenly she wakes up doing a startle reflex, like if she's ver very sceard of something or like if she's falling down and she needs to hold something. Usually I ether hug her or grab her hands to make her feel that there is nothing to be scared of.

Does anybody experience this before?

Thank you very much,

v

Answer 1

My baby girl, 9 weeks old just did this twice today, she was awake but all of a sudden grabbed her babygro and started tugging it and she was crying and looked terrified, i picked her up straight away and she calmed down.

About an hour later, while still awake i put her down and she started to claw at her babygro and at the air in front of her as if she was falling and she looked  soooo scared and was crying hysterically, i'm still shaking and if she does it again,  i think i'm going to call the doctor.

Answer 2

My son did this when he was really young then stopped for about 2 years then did it for about a month when he was 3 years old. He said he was having a bad dream but woke up startled, screaming and scared to death. I put him in bed with me, just figured he saw something scary or had a bad spurt of nightmares...dont worry about it, it'll go away.  

Answer 3

I took a psychology class and learned that one of the only instincts we are born with is a fear of falling so this very well could be what is going on. I have had my son do this before as well and my daughter did also, they are both fine. I wouldn't worry too much but ask her Dr. about it the next time you go in just to ease your mind.  

Answer 4

Are you swaddling her?  Wrapping her up in her blankie?  I know it's summer but that helps.  Maybe crank up the air a notch and wrap her in a thin blanket.

Answer 5

could be dreaming about when she was born