In my last post, I talked about some weird episodes we were having with Will. It was something very odd that we had happening and I was worried. This was the 3rd time it happened, and I was stressing over it.

What happens is is that Will would wake up from a nap and scream. This was no normal scream either. Instead, he would scream for around 45 – 60 minutes, and nothing would call him down. He didn't want to be held. If you tried to give him a sippy up or something to eat, he would throw it at you. Now, this is not Will at all. While he was screaming, he would constantly be arching his back and getting all rigid. It is enough to scare the crap out of any parent.

It didn't happen often enough that I would even remember to ask the doctor at his regular visits. It happened once in September, once in November, and then 2 weeks ago. This last time I called his doctor, and we scheduled a visit.

Surprisingly, they think it is “night terrors”. Now, this was not something I knew a whole lot about nor did I know that this can actually happen at night time! It is very similar to sleepwalking and sleeptalking. Night terrors are considered to be a disorder of arousal and are a partial arousal from non-REM sleep. When Will naps, he goes into a deep enough sleep that this is occurring. They most commonly happen in children between the ages of 2 and 6 years. However, they can occur at any age (so adults can get them too). They often happen in times of stress and when they are overtired. There is nothing that can really be done regarding them either. Basically, I need to keep Will on a sleeping schedule (good luck with that since Madison's preschool schedule throws that out the window) and make sure he doesn't get overtired. Eventually, he should outgrow this.

I am hoping that me writing this will help someone else going through this. These episodes are scary, but at least now I know what I am dealing with.