My Boys

*sigh* There is something that occasionally happens in our house that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. My oldest son has night terrors every so often. I think he used to have them as a baby, but I just didn't realize it. He's always been a terrible sleeper-gave up naps by 18 months, used to frequently get up at 5 am and be ready to rock, at least now he sleeps good from 8pm - 6:30-7am most days. I tried a variety of things to get him to sleep and mostly out of my selfishness did whatever was easiest to get him there. But looking back on the times I was loosing my mind, I wonder if it was something way beyond my control? Once he started talking and could articulate, was when I realized that he suffered from these strange night terrors. Unless you've experienced it, you can't imagine how horrible, awful, helpless you feel when your baby is calling out scared for you and you are right there, but he has no idea. My son typically is crying during these crazy episodes and his eyes are open. He can be looking right at you but it not register. In the past I think we've topped out at like 10 minutes for this to go on, which is a lifetime. But last nights, was by far the longest we've had to deal with. It was around a half an hour. My husband came in and woke me up and said B was having a fit. So I stumble in there and he is crying, sobbing. I felt his face-a few real tears. He is flailing his arms around as if he's swimming in water. I try to roll him over, but his body is very tense and he gets mad that I am trying to change his position. I keep asking him over and over, "B what is wrong?" "Mommy's here!" For a while, I get little response from him. Eventually he starts responding, but he is still not out of the terror. I held him in my arms, trying to gently shake him awake, but he tells me to get away, leave him alone. *stab to my heart* I know this isn't my boy speaking to me. I hold him close even though he doesn't seem to want me to. I don't care. I know that when my son is normally frightened, he needs to be close to me. He finally calms down and as quick as it started it's over. He stopped crying, his breathing regulated and his body relaxed. I laid with him for a while, to make sure it was really over. It bewilders me this phenomenon. I have no idea if there is any real cause or what, but it is such an awful thing to experience to see your child frightened, scared and not be able to comfort him. Thank God these episodes don't happen that often. Somehow my youngest son slept peacefully in the same room through the entire thing! And, of course, when B woke up this morning, he had no recollection of the bad night.



On a funnier note, my youngest son's favorite word right now is "D-Gusting!" Everything is disgusting to him and he says it with much emphasis. He wanted cereal for breakfast, which I said no to since he wouldn't eat it. He ignored my decline and promptly got out the cereal, spoon and bowl. Fine. B had waffles and I ate a bagel. Soon, E starts saying "D-Gusting!" "I don't want my cereal, it's D-GUSTING!" He wants a waffle. I told him after he eats his cereal he can have a waffle. We battled it out for a while, I was mostly ignoring him tyring to get ready. Eventually he does eat the cereal, which by now in my book IS disgusting since it's so soggy. It was comical...I dunno, maybe you had to be there. But he likes to use this word often and it does not just apply to food. If B is roughhousing with E and it gets to be too much, E exclaims, "D-Gusting!!" I'm pretty sure I know where the application of this word came from too... we've been telling him that his dirty diapers are disgusting and he needs to go in the toilet. Ooops! Careful what you wish for. ;-)