The Trials of a Busy Mom

Up in the night

At about 11:40, we heard screaming coming from John’s room. I rushed into his room, and he was walking around, obviously very upset. I picked him up to try to comfort him, but he was grabbing at himself and kicking. In order to not wake Megan, who is sharing his room with him right now, we took him into our room to figure out what was wrong.
“Do you need to use the potty?” I asked him.
“NOOO!” he yelled.
“Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?” I asked him.
“Nooo!” he yelled again. He was writhing about, kicking and screaming. We tried to help him calm down, and he would for a minute, but then he was back kicking and yelling.
In a panic, I asked Ryan to call our friend and neighbor who is also a doctor. Maybe it’s a seizure. Maybe there’s something really wrong with him. Maybe he’s in pain! We’ve got to help him! But we didn’t call our doctor friend. It was midnight, after all. We just kept trying to comfort him.

He calmed down a little bit laying in my lap, and I comforted him the best I could. Eventually he said, “I want a blanket.” I put him down in our bed and put a blanket over him, and he went back to sleep.

I wish I could say the same for me. I couldn’t sleep all night worrying about my boy. Maybe he has some weird form of autism. Maybe he has some internal injuries that are hurting him. Maybe he has appendicitis. (And NO, I was not up all night looking up things on Web MD–this was just my mind racing.)

He slept the rest of the night, and didn’t even wake up when Ryan took him back to his own bed. Teh next morning, he didn’t mention any of this.

Well, Ryan looked things up and found that our boy had had a “night terror”, which I had heard of but never actually experienced (isn’t it funny that on the 5th kid I’m still learning new things?) and sent me a link to this.

The next morning, when I went walking, I asked my friend and my sister-in-law if any of their kids had done this, and they both answered yes. With one of their kids. At rehearsal that night I mentioned it to someone in the play and they said that yes, one of their kids had had night terrors. I guess it’s a common thing.

Night terrors are not the same as nightmares and the treatment is different as well.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: Varies
Here’s How:

1. Don’t hug or shake your child. Waking the child will only frighten him or her more. (oops, I did that wrong)
2. Stay close to your child until he or she falls into a normal sleep again.
3. Turn on the lights and talk softly to soothe and assure the child that he or she is safe.
4. Watch to make sure your child doesn’t do anything to harm him or herself, like falling out of bed.
5. Night terrors sometimes lead to sleep walking. If this occurs, guide your child gently back to bed without waking him or her.
6. Keep the room safe in case of sleepwalking. Avoid upper bunks and keep the floor free of dangerous obstructions.
(his room is totally FULL of obstructions!)
7. Warn baby-sitters or other family members and let them know how to deal with night terrors.
8. Keep your child on a regular schedule of meal times, bed times and rising times. (I don’t know how to do this when we have company and it’s summer time)
9. Make sure the child goes to the bathroom before going to bed. Night terrors can sometimes cause bedwetting. (Right)
10. Check for fever or illness that may be causing the night terrors.
11. Night terrors often occur about the same time every night. Set the alarm and wake your child before the terror begins.
12. If the night terrors happen often or are particularly disturbing to you or your child, discuss the problem with your doctor.
13. Ask your doctor if he can prescribe any medication that might help. (or maybe one for me. Xanax?)
14. If you believe the episodes may be caused by emotional problems or post-traumatic stress, talk it over with a psychiatrist or counselor.

Tips:

1. Remember that most night terrors end before puberty.
2. A happy, relaxed home will help chase away the night terrors.
3. Remember that your child will probably not remember the night terror episode in the morning.

But it still scared me to death and I don’t want to have to go through that again, thank you very much.

11 Comments

  1. Amber

    wow. . that would be scary. I hope it doesn’t happen again. 🙂

  2. Melinda

    When we lived in student housing, we had a neighbor that experienced night terrors. She was in her twenties and we could hear her through the walls sometimes. One time she punched a hole in a door. Bet that was fun for her husband.

  3. Rae

    Good luck tonight! I hope you, John and everyone in your household are able to get a good night sleep with sweet dreams! BTW, I think it’s so neat you are able to go walking with your sil! None of my family (or in-laws) live that close to me.

  4. Janice from Book Club

    I have a child who suffered from night terrors. It is awful and so helpless feeling. I also had a nephew who got them, so at least in our family, it is genetic. I am sorry but in the grand scheme of things, it is a doable problem to have.

  5. Ryan

    I had heard of them, and suspected that’s what it was, but didn’t remember enough about it to be terribly helpful.

  6. Tess

    Meg and Eli both got pretty regular night terrors from the ages of 4-7ish. I feel your pain – but at least now you know not to worry when it happens again (and, it will likely happen again). BTW, good luck next week in Suessical!!!!

  7. Christina

    Cute new look!

  8. Ryan

    Glad you like the new theme. Paige hasn’t seen it yet.

    She sent me the links of a couple of themes she liked. I had to put in the text on the header image, I don’t really care for the font, but I was in a bit of a hurry.

  9. Amy

    Jacob had that happen when he was about 1 1/2, a few nights in a row, then it’s never happened since. I never figured out what happened, but I guess that’s probably it. Chrissy said that Joseph had night terrors all the time. It was really, really scary, and frustrating, because he couldn’t tell me what was wrong (of course he wasn’t talking by that age) and I couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He just sounded like he was going to die! I hope that never happens again with John. Not fun.

    By the way, I also really like your theme. I haven’t found a way to change my template to something really cool without losing all my settings.

  10. Bobbi

    My two year old has just started something very similar. Wakes up screaming uncontrollably. Says “nooooooo” to everything we suggest when trying to calm him. Pushes us away as we try to pick him up, hug him or put him back to bed. Will allow us to guide him to our room and bed and once he calms a little just passes out fast asleep on his own and often we can move him back to his own bed no problems. He is also starting to not want to go to bed at night and fights us on it. Could that be because of the night terrors I wonder? Thank you for the link. I am going to book mark it!

  11. Kimberly

    We have experienced the exact same thing with our son–and I also incorrectly wake up my child. I have found, thanks to a friend, that if you give your child protein right before bed (piece of cheese, lunchmeat, nuts) they don’t happen. My son has been fright free for months now doing this–I don’t remember every night but we try to as much as possible to remember it. Also NO SUGAR after 7:00pm makes a world of difference too. Good luck! Hang in there!

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