Wednesday, July 20, 2011

This isn't the first time.

Now that this has happened not ONCE, not TWICE, BUT 3 times!! I must blog about the matter.

I'm talking about wretched NIGHT TERRORS. Poor Reagan girl has been having nasty middle of the night cases of night terrors. Let me start from the beginning...

So a couple of weeks ago I had been toying around the idea that naps may be coming to an end. This was not by choice. It seemed that naps were happening sporadically throughout the week & not on a consistent everyday basis. I'm not an uptight Mama so I figured okay this is just another new phase & there is no use fighting. UNTIL...

It was a Friday & our family from Georgia was visiting & we headed over to my In-laws to hang out. I'm not a stickler about the naps. So I took the two littles & spent the whole afternoon over there & part of the evening going out to dinner. As you can already figure out.... this meant no nap. Honestly I didn't think much of it. I figured (naively) that no nap MIGHT mean more night time sleep. Oh boy, was I wrong!

In the middle of the night, Reagan woke up screaming & thrashing around. She was acting strange. I thought maybe she had a nightmare. I was finally able to calm her down. And like any good mom, I googled the issue. All signs pointed to NIGHT TERRORS. There was no consoling her & I read that you need to just let them work it out which can last up to an hour!! Yikes. I also read that she is not awake & won't recognize that we are there. Let me tell you, it's quite a scary thing to see your child act crazy like that & there isn't much you can do about it. One of the main reasons for night terrors is lack of sleep. Which made complete sense.

So... the same thing happened the next evening. BUT, it got better from there until last night. I had fought her all afternoon to take a nap. No such luck. And, I eventually gave up. I was at my wits end & didn't see how I was going to get her to sleep. So like the other 2 horrible nights, she once again screamed, yelled, called for Mommy, thrashed, kicked, wriggled, threw herself on the floor, & cried hysterically. Oh the joy! A half hour or so later she calmed down & went to sleep on our floor nestled in her pillow & blankie.

I think we will be keeping our naps around for a while longer. I can't solely base these night terrors on the nap situation, they are also VERY common in children 2-4 years old. Unfortunately, we are some of the few that get to experience the torment.



1 comment:

Mrs. Mama said...

Hey girl, just saw your comment... what's your email address and I will send you the details! Thanks for volunteering to go first!