An exciting new development phase I hope ends quickly.

[brigid]

We’ve hit a developmental phase that I totally hate. Some infants/toddlers never reach this, some are afflicted for a long time, some flirt with it on and off. It’s utterly horrific. I’m talking about night terrors.

When Niko woke up screaming and sobbing and inconsolable yesterday morning at like 5:00 am, we assumed it was a hold over from his recent battle with a stomach bug. Maybe his stomach hurt. Maybe he had a fever dream or something. He eventually came out of it enough that he was able to respond to our questions and we assumed it was a bad dream only, but I had my suspicions that he was only saying “yeah” to things as an automatic response and had been in the throes of a night terror.

I think I was right. This morning was the worst of them all. He’s had “night” terrors a few times before during his naps. The longest until today was 45 minutes of sobbing. Today, though, he “woke” at 3:30am and sobbed and wailed and thrashed around and slapped himself in the face until about 5:00, at which point we all got out of bed and I took a shower while Niko clung to Nesko on the couch, still whimpering gently, and watched “Thomas.” An hour later he was still on edge, clingy, weepy, and delicate.

He perked up, out of nowhere, after a bit. Nothing had changed, he just hopped down and started playing with a train. He objected strenuously to a diaper change/getting dressed, but was in pretty high spirits when Nesko dropped him off at Baba and Djedo’s.

Also: he has a rash and has been rubbing his eyes/putting things on his eyes. The rash looks like contact dermatitis (my old friend), but we haven’t changed any detergents or soaps or lotions or ANYTHING (I mean, we haven’t even opened new bottles of the same brand). It started out ringing his neck and has spread to his back and chest, the insides of his upper arms, and his face. It might be heat rash, possibly, I guess but it’s 10-20 degrees cooler than it’s been lately so I don’t know if it’s that. It might be a strawberry thing (he’s been eating a lot of them lately, and I’d cut them out of his diet several months ago because he had a rash on his stomach that seemed to come up when he ate strawberries, but then he ate strawberries more recently with no rash at all). It might be from the farm we visited this weekend, although Nesko says the neck rash has been in place for about a week, although maybe THAT was heat rash and this is something else.

I do not know.

At least it doesn’t seem to itch.

In more fun and less screamy news, we went to Wagner Farm in Glenview. We went last year, although it was later in the year (late October) and pretty cold and windy. The good bit about that was no flies, less cow poop stink. It being warm, though, meant less snotty nose on Niko’s part. He was still feeling a bit down after his stomach bug and wanted to be carried everywhere, but he had a good time. He even touched a calf! It was thrilling. If you ask him about the visit, he mentions that he saw a cow, and he touched a cow, and that the cow “making poop” and “THAT FUNNY.” So, you know. Poop jokes. Yay?

Afterward, we went to The Choo-Choo Restaurant in Des Plaines. We met our friend Brian there. We weren’t able to sit at the counter, where a train runs around delivering your food. The food tasted good anyway, although Niko was very ready for a nap. (We should have just gone home, but we’d already made plans and Brian was already on the way, and we are selfish jerks who like seeing our friend.) He didn’t eat much, and wanted to sit in this train ride like the kind you see outside grocery stores, where you put a quarter in and it jerks around, but the train jerking around seemed too much for him… it looked a bit, at times, like he was about to be carsick.

We didn’t do all we wanted to do this weekend because of his rude awakening Sunday morning and generally being out of sorts the rest of the day. But there’s always next weekend. We have plans to visit Ann Sather’s (again) and then the beach (again) with a different friend of ours from out of town.

I have a bunch of photos of the last beach trip and the farm, and hope to post them soon.

Mirrored from Now Showing!.

Comments

[morally_diseased]

My parents can completely empathize with you about night terrors. I had night terrors when I was that age. I don't remember them at all but my parents do. At my worst, I would scream on average 2-3 times a night. Never woke up though. Mom and Dad would come in and just rub my back and talk to me but not wake me up. Doctor told them not to. Took me a few years to grow out of it. I think I was 4 when they stopped. Mom and Dad could finally move me into sharing a room with my sister. It's hard to share a room with a toddler when you scream in your sleep.
There's a possibility Niko will sleepwalk when he's older. Our family doctor told my parents that kids with night terrors are prone to sleepwalking. I started sleepwalking in college. Maybe sooner but my sister sleeps like the dead so we'll never know. Lol.
I'm not saying your experience will be like mine. I figured I could share my story and maybe it's similar enough that you could get something from it.

[brigid]

He already talks in his sleep (and laughs). I wouldn't be surprised if he sleepwalked. I do sometimes when I'm very stressed out or ill.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm hoping this is a rare thing caused in large part by him recovering from being ill (although he keeps loudly proclaiming I NOT SICK! this is a lie)/being stressed out by sickness and our work/life situation. A friend of mine, his kid got the night terrors several times a week for MONTHS at one point. AUGH.