Big Fella has been waking in the middle of the night recently. He's absolutely hysterical; it's like nothing I've seen before. He's screaming, crying, kicking out and inconsolable. Sometimes he's still in his bed, other times Hubby and I find him in various places around the house. Those times are even harder to deal with as trying to get him back to bed are so difficult and now there's no way I can pick him up; I'm not strong enough or stable enough with my dodgy leg and he's just way too big now.
During these episodes it seems like he's kinda still asleep. It's almost like he's sleepwalking except he's "sleep screaming". It's very difficult to get anything out of him, maybe the odd word or nod of the head so it's been very difficult to work out what's causing them. Hubby wondered if they were linked to him playing games on the iPad/Xbox but he doesn't have any violent games despite him pleading and begging to have Grand Theft Auto because all the kids in his class have it! If that's true then I'm quite amazed that other parents have such lax attitudes to the age rating of this game and others that he tells me his friends are playing. He knows my opinion on the matter and I'm not budging. The only games he plays a lot are FIFA and minecraft. I know in the survival element of minecraft there are creepers and zombies trying to get you but overall these games are pretty tame (unless he's crying over the fact his sister set fire to one of his mine craft worlds?!)
I'm not convinced it's linked to computer games as the Xbox broke recently and he didn't play it for 2 weeks yet we still experienced these episodes. I've looked online and they seem to be very alike to night terrors so I'm wondering if I should go to the GP? Anybody out there had any experience with night terrors that they can share with me?
The other thing that's really shook me up is that last night Hubby and I were asking him what his dream was about while I rocked him back to sleep. Whenever he has one of these terrors I tend to list aloud people, places, things etc in the hope of finding out what's upset him so much. I don't normally get much out of him although last week he did say Big Girls name. She happened to be standing there as it had woken her up. Needless to say I then had 2 crying children as she was so distraught that she might have caused Big Fella to be like this.
Last night when I was going through my list and said "Mummy" he then went crazy again, taking it to a whole other volume level. I tried to soothe him saying things like mummy's home now, mummy's getting better, mummy's not in hospital, mummy's here, mummy's here to look after you and then I had a thought. I said to him "Mummy's not going to die" and then that was it. It set him off and I've never seen him like it ever before. It took me ages to settle him. Initially I had to rock him like a baby and then I stroked his face for ages while he drifted off. Like with a newborn, the minute I stopped stroking him or touching him he would start crying again so I was there until he fell into a deep sleep. I know when this is because the thumb that he sucks ferociously drops out of his mouth and he takes a big sigh. It's so cute and such a contrast with the earlier screaming and crying.
To think that I might be the cause of these night terrors just breaks my heart. I was awake for hours last night thinking about what I can do to reassure him that I'm not going to die! I might not be 100% but I'm certainly not going to be knocking at the pearly gates for some time yet. Whether he's thinking back to times when I was really quite poorly, hooked up to tubes and wires and looking dreadful I don't know. And the thing is that in the morning he doesn't remember a thing so it's not as if I can discuss it with him. It's just another hurdle for our family to deal with and get over. One of many it seems at the moment.
NB x
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