Nooo...I'm not talking about a new nickname for Aidan Patrick when it gets dark! I'm talking about the most scary thing I have encountered as a mom.
"A 2-year-old boy jolts upright in bed, panicked. Eyes wide, mouth circled in a scream, the terror brings his mother running, only to find she can't reach her son. He is trapped betwixt and between, caught within two layers of his own body's functioning. His mind is asleep, his body awake. he doesn't respond to his mother's touch; he struggles to free himself of her grasp. She can do nothing but watch and wait. It will end, she tells herself. " http://toddlerstoday.com/resources/articles/nightterrors.htm
It is so awful! (this happened the other night, not last night) First he didn't go to bed until almost midnight. WHY you may ask? I have NO IDEA! Then, about 2:15 AM it started. The screaming and crying and thrashing around like a mad man - literally! If I try to hold him squirms away. If I try to give him something, like his puppy, he screams NO and throws it. SO finally, we do what we have read is the best thing to do - NOTHING. The main objective at that time is just to keep him safe. Within minutes (which feel like HOURS) he is sound asleep (eyes closed) snoring in my bed his head at my feet.
We went through this about 2 months ago with him and I thought it was just a phase and that they had stopped, but NOPE! Now all the reading that I have done on it asks the question "what has changed" and in our case, nothing has. BUT it also mentions that lack of sleep can trigger a night terror. Isn't that a scary word - night terror? I think so! So - the picture that you see posted of Aidan is from yesterday when he fell alseep about 2:30 (in my bed) and woke up about 6:30 PM. What to do? Do you let him sleep until he wakes up because you know he needs this sleep - but will he sleep at night? Ahhhh - I was in bed at 8:44 last night praying that he would follow suit. He finally fell alseep about 10:00 or there abouts - and he woke up again during the night. This time he was not screaming like he did the night before, but crying nonetheless.
So needless to say, I put a call into his pediatrician yesterday and she is going to be getting back to us today.
We never went through this with Abby, except for ONCE and that was when she was 3 maybe 3 1/2, and at the time I had no idea that she was still asleep - she looked awake, but there was no consoling her. I know that every child is different, but Abby was a SLEEPER and still is. In fact she slept through the whole night terror affair!
Last night she asked if I would snuggle with her, which of course I did, and then I asked her how her day at school was...she replied, "Can we just talk about that tomorrow!" and proceeded to snore!
Speaking of Abby - school is going very well for her. She told her "friend" Alex that we use the word Love only for family so for now, she just likes him! That's my girl! So smart!
By the way, she had a wonderful time with her Gram on Tuesday - but then again, who wouldn't!
"If your baby is "beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time," you're the grandma." - Theresa Bloomingdale
Today we woke up to the smell of FrenchToast and Bacon! Daddy got up EXTRA early (guess he couldn't sleep - maybe the bed was too crowded for him? Aidan has come in with us...) and went to Shaws and got the fixin's for a great breakfast! Thanks Daddy!!!!
There is no love sincerer than the love of food. Author: George Bernard Shaw
2 comments:
my poor little man........you guys must be exhausted!!
Ask Mom and she'll tell you that when I was younger I used to have really bad dreams. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, bolt up and scream. The problem was I couldn't use my voice I was trying to scream so hard. It took a few minutes before I could find my voice to cry and yell for Mom.
I only had a handful of times that it happened and thankfully (knock on wood) I have been nightmare free since.
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