have your kids ever had night terrors? if you are scratching your head wondering to yourself "what are these night terrors she speaks of?" then the answer is no. but if you nodding then you, my friend, know what i'm talking about.
night terrors are when a child suddenly screams in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. well, maybe they are dreaming but they don't seem to recall the dream. but they scream. loudly. it curdles blood. the screams are terrifying for the parents because 1) they come out of the clear blue 2) you would swear someone is kidnapping them and 3) you heart feels like it will explode out of your chest.
my daughter did not have night terrors. no, she was always a good sleeper. a terrible napper but a great sleeper at night. my son, who is a great sleeper as well, is a night terror kid.
several times last summer harry screamed in the middle of the night and thinking someone was snatching him i bolted from my bed and bounded up a flight of stairs to the opposite end of the house to stop the kidnapping. i don't remember my feet touching the stairs and i think the whole trip took 1.2 seconds. 1.2 seconds of soul-numbing, heart-racing, stomach-clenching fear. but when i reached his room, no one was there and harry was quiet. i wondered if maybe i was sleepwalking. or maybe i was picking up another family on the monitor. just as i turned to leave, he screamed out again.
this happened several more times before i realized he was having night terrors. sometimes i'm a little slow on the uptake.
last night, harry again had night terrors but these actually had us chuckling, despite the ungodly hour of 4:25 am. harry was crying and screaming. then he kept saying "cheerrioooooooooos!! cheerrioooooooooos!! no! no! no! cheerrioooooooooos!!" when i went into his room, he was crying and agitated, then he screamed "no! bagel!"
i rubbed his back and told him "shhhh....you're having a bad dream. come sleep with mommy."
"no, hawwy seeping!" he said.
and then he just turned over and went right back to sleep.
night terrors are when a child suddenly screams in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. well, maybe they are dreaming but they don't seem to recall the dream. but they scream. loudly. it curdles blood. the screams are terrifying for the parents because 1) they come out of the clear blue 2) you would swear someone is kidnapping them and 3) you heart feels like it will explode out of your chest.
my daughter did not have night terrors. no, she was always a good sleeper. a terrible napper but a great sleeper at night. my son, who is a great sleeper as well, is a night terror kid.
several times last summer harry screamed in the middle of the night and thinking someone was snatching him i bolted from my bed and bounded up a flight of stairs to the opposite end of the house to stop the kidnapping. i don't remember my feet touching the stairs and i think the whole trip took 1.2 seconds. 1.2 seconds of soul-numbing, heart-racing, stomach-clenching fear. but when i reached his room, no one was there and harry was quiet. i wondered if maybe i was sleepwalking. or maybe i was picking up another family on the monitor. just as i turned to leave, he screamed out again.
this happened several more times before i realized he was having night terrors. sometimes i'm a little slow on the uptake.
last night, harry again had night terrors but these actually had us chuckling, despite the ungodly hour of 4:25 am. harry was crying and screaming. then he kept saying "cheerrioooooooooos!! cheerrioooooooooos!! no! no! no! cheerrioooooooooos!!" when i went into his room, he was crying and agitated, then he screamed "no! bagel!"
i rubbed his back and told him "shhhh....you're having a bad dream. come sleep with mommy."
"no, hawwy seeping!" he said.
and then he just turned over and went right back to sleep.
1 Comments:
poor harry. poor meredith.
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