I tried to comfort him, but he was wild and disoriented and panicked. MacTroll tried to help, but whenever he touched X-man, X-man freaked out and would flail against him screaming, "Mommy!"
After several very long and scary minutes X-man fell asleep on top of me. I slipped out from beneath him and went to the guest room so he could sleep with MacTroll. It was simply too hot to have him on top of me all night.
This morning, he's sleeping in a little late (after a 6:45 a.m. rising time yesterday). They say he won't remember, but we will.
In response to the craziness, Riley wanted MacTroll to let him out four times last night. I guess he felt like he was on guard since we were worn out.
4 comments:
E was about X-Man's age when she first started getting them. It is so scary as a parent to watch your child so frightened and not be able to do anything to help. I know "people" say not to wake the child, but I would hold her and turn on cartoons. Whatever was on at 2 or 3 in the morning. I'd turn them up really loud and she'd stop screaming and just stare at them until she fell back asleep. I'm sure it was not the "correct" thing to do, but it worked for me.
The first time my oldest daughter had a night terror was over a Thanksgiving holiday at my mom's house with lots of relatives who were awakened by the commotion. Luckily they were polite enough to stay in their bedrooms. I was desperate. I was just about to take her to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face (which probably would have been a big mistake, but as I said, I was *desperate*) when my mom came in. She heard her screaming all the way from her master bedroom downstairs. She came running up to our room and saw how out of control she was and me (panicky) telling her I've done everything I can think of to calm her down and that I didn't think she was really awake. Then mom just leaned in, kind of nudged her on her arm and said, "Hey! What's the matter with you?" And I'll be doggone if she didn't snap right out of it, look right at my mom and crawl up into her arms and wimper herself to sleep. I looked at Mom incredulously and told her I had done the exact same thing about a dozen times. I guess my mom just has something in her voice that brought her to alertness. The whole experience just left me embarrassed and exhausted. I apologized profusely to my family at breakfast that morning, and they were really, really nice about it. They all had kids. They understood. But somehow I just felt incredibly inept as a mother.
Our younger daughter has had them one. It didn't freak me out as much because we'd been through it with her sister, but it's still way, way exhausting. At least she has the common sense (joking) to at least have them at home.
--Denise
Thankfully Owen has only had one night terror so far--but it scared the shit out of me.
I seriously thought he was having a seizure or something because he was so entrenched it the terror.
Then when it was all over I just sat in bed, wide awake, wondering what I'd done as a mother to make his life miserable enough to generate such a terrible dream . . . great self-confidence, no?
Sorry you guys had to go through that. Glad MacTroll was home with you to weather the storm.
WoW how scary. I don't think Rowan's ever had one, and it sounds like I would probably remember it if he did. I hope it was his first and last!
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