I awake to the screams nearly every single night. I’ll wait impatiently in my bed to see if they stop. Not only do they continue, but they escalate as well. Last night he yelled “mom” in between the screams. I rush in to find him in his crib with his little bum in the air screaming. I immediately pick him up but that only makes it worse. No matter what I do, the screaming and cries continue. I’m usually always the one he goes to to be consoled, but this time there’s nothing I can do to make it better.
I usually just lay him in our bed and let him sleep with us the rest of the night. He’s not the most composed sleeper and usually ends up perpendicular to us, with his feet in my face. And when MacKay wakes up for work at 5am, he thinks it’s time for him to get up as well, making it a very early morning for all three of us. And with these happening almost every night, that means that I am going on very little sleep every single day.
Honestly, I don’t mind getting up with him every night. Yes, I’d rather be sleeping. But after being up with him all the time during his first year, I feel like it’s just like riding a bicycle again. My body is used to it. I just hate seeing him in so much turmoil. And knowing that there is absolutely nothing I can do to get him to calm down. The only silver lining is that he wakes up in a happy mood with no recollection of what happened in the wee hours of the morning.
While I’m self diagnosing him with sleep terrors, I have an appointment with his pediatrician in the morning just to be sure. I’m the type that would rather be safe than sorry and I always tend to worry about things until I have an answer for them. While there may be nothing that I can do to help him with these sleep espisodes, I’ll feel better getting a proper diagnosis from his doctor.
While the girls aren’t perfect sleepers, we’ve never really had anything as significant as this. Yet again, I’m in pareting territory that I’ve never experienced before. I know that night terrors are common in young kids and that they eventually grow out of them, but have you had any experience with them? I’d love some advice!
