The Witching Hour

No, this is not a post about Halloween.  So if that's what you came here for, I suggest you move along.  Just kidding!!! That was a really really bad seasonal joke. Anyhow....

The Big Boy has put us through just about every sleep disorder: nightmares, night-terrors and sleepwalking.  Have you heard the story about the time he slept-walked out of the house and into the car?

So you would think I am a professional at dealing with sleep disorders by now.  Sadly, I am not.

TT has been having night-terrors 5 out of 7 nights a week, for the better part of a month now.

And it is just now, that I am learning to accept these for what they are.

Like clock work TT "wakes-up" at 11pm and proceeds to scream and cry until midnight, and there is no consoling him.  You see, night-terrors are a partial sleep disorder; the child appears to be awake - eyes open, moving around; but they are in fact asleep.

And Husband and I have been doing everything wrong when these episodes occur.  We should just be checking on him and letting him be; because the more you interfere with the night-terror the worse you make it.  Instead we are going in and rubbing his back, putting his blankets back on, *gasp* bringing him back to bed with us (where the night-terror really gets out of control).  It's so hard to just let him be during these episodes however.  It's natural for a parent to want to hold and comfort their child when they are distressed; it's like the treatment goes against every thing you feel.

After another night of too little sleep, for mom and dad; because of the night-terrors I decided to refresh my night-terror knowledge; and tonight I am going to try and wake him 15 minutes before the witching hour.  Doing this nightly for a week should solve the problem for the time being for us.  Ah, another thing that goes against you parenting instincts - waking a sleeping child.

But maybe, just maybe we'll actually get a full nights sleep (sometime soon).