Parents pls advice me. My 2 yr old wakes up every night around 12-1, hysterically laughing and she even says bye bye and stuff. I initially thought she was dreaming so I would pat her back, but she keeps her eyes open while she is smiling and laughing. What is actually happening?

Honestly, I got a bit creeped out when I first read this question but that's because I watch too many horror movies. It sounds alot like parasomnia , specifically "night terrors", which are fairly common in children. They would talk, laugh, scream or sometimes walk in their sleep for a few minutes before falling back into deep sleep. Night terrors could happen due to overstimulation in the day, eating a heavy meal right before bedtime or due to stimulating gadgets like tv, ipads etc. One way to reduce night terrors is to break the cycle and establish a new one. Waking the child up before the night terror actually happens is a proven method. Since you mentioned that your baby wakes up around 12-1 am every night, try to wake her up half an hour before in order to break the cycle. You could wake baby up for a night feeding or to check her diaper. After that, just lull her back to bed as usual. In the long run, this will disrupt her night terror cycle permanently and hopefully it will go away for good. This method may seem difficult, to wake a child up while he or she is peacefully sleeping, but if the night terrors is worrisome, I highly recommend this method.