Nightmares/Night Terrors

Hi all.. 

I am just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar & has any advice.

My daughter is 2 & a half and usually a good sleeper. We used to put her down and say night and she’d happily settle herself.

On NYE she woke me up screaming as she was having a bad dream.. when I went in she looked awake so I cuddled her but she was screaming and had a look of terror on her face. She was convinced I had something on my neck and would not let me touch her. I’ve read about night terrors so initially assumed it was one but my partner & I brought her into our bed and she was convinced something was on her and literally gripping onto my partner and screaming in terror. This went on for nearly 5 hours.

The issue is it’s stayed with her and she’s now frightened to go to sleep in her bed and just will not settle without one of us cuddling her. She stayed at my Mum’s last night and slept fine but is clearly very scared when we leave her bedroom tonight so is associating her room with the nightmare. I don’t want to start any ‘bad habits’ but can’t leave her scared and need to console her. It can’t have been a night terror as I’ve read children forget about them the next day. Has anyone had anything like this happen?? I’ve spoken to the HV & they just said she’ll eventually forget about it but she doesnt seem to be and it’s so sad 😞

Sorry for the VERY long post but wanted to explain the full story!