The Terror that is a Night Terror

I wake up shortly after midnight to Chloe, just starting to cry. 

It's night number two of going to bed without a bottle, and she went to bed crying because of it. She's not a fan of change. I wish I could keep her on the bottle for longer, because I hate seeing her unhappy, but I think it's time. 

I go in to check on her, hoping she drank some of the milk in her sippy cup, but she didn't really drink much. 

I reach for her. She's still crying, but as I reach for it's like she just lost it. Her back is arching, her limbs are flailing. She's pushing so hard with her feet that she's hitting her head against the rails on the crib. She tries to bite her arm, a new thing she's started doing when she's upset. 

I quickly pull her out of the crib, so she's not hurting herself. It's like wrestling with a bull. She's doing her best to fight me off, which makes it hard to get downstairs, but we make it. I unfold her couch so it's like a little bed and I set her down. She continues kicking and screaming, throwing her body around. At one point she grabs her foot and tries to bite it but I stop her. That makes the crying and screaming louder. It's like there's a demon inside her, trying to get out. 

This goes on for less than 10 minutes, but it feels like an eternity. I want to get some milk for her, in hopes that it will calm her down, but I don't want to leave her. I'm scared she bites herself again, and since she's not exactly conscious, she might break skin. 

That's right, she's not even really conscious. 

It's heartbreaking. 

Her screaming slows, and she's just regular crying. I pick her up again, and this time she's not really fighting. Almost like magic, she "falls asleep" in my arms. I say "falls asleep" because she was never really awake. She looks so little, so precious. I'm crying. I hate seeing her like this. 

A couple of minutes pass, and she starts whining. Her normal, everyday whining. I take her into the kitchen and set her on the counter. I can tell she's back to herself now, because she reached for the bin of pens that hangs on the fridge, and smiles. I fill a new sippy cup with milk for her and ask her to hold it for me. She does. 

She whines a little as I take her upstairs, but I tell her it's "night night" time. I lay her down, nudge her to her side, and she cradles her sippy cup half in her mouth. Her eyes are half closed as I cover her up. 

All is well again. This is the second time that it's happened in a month or two. I think it's the 4th or 5th time it's ever happened to Chloe. Night terrors. So scary. So real. 

Night Terrors: More common than I thought

December 17

Do you know what night terrors are? Because I hadn't heard of them until a little over a year ago. I also had no idea how common they are. 

How common, you ask? Well my step-daughter had them almost nightly for months (her half brother and mother her also had them), from about 17 months until about 21 months. They're finally getting to be a bit rare with her. 

And now Chloe has them. She has only had two so far, with a couple of weeks between the two, 

What are night terrors? That article posts a great explanation, although I would assume that they're a bit more common than they say, and they start a bit younger. 

With our girls, they usually started 1-2 hours after going to bed for Madi, and about two hours after going to bed for Chloe. 

At first it just seem like they're upset in bed.

Last night I picked Chloe up, and she seemed okay but all of a sudden got really upset. At first I thought something may be wrong. 

I sat on the floor and held her but then she started to fight me so I let her go. We tried to give her a bottle, which she never turns down, but she wanted nothing to do with it. She crawled into the corner with her head on the floor, and the rest of her body in the downward-facing dog position. She would tense up, then relax over and over. The crying sometimes gets so intense that it's scary. She wouldn't look at us. It was like we didn't exist. It was always the same for Madi too. 

It lasted about 10 minutes. Madi's were usually longer - 20+ minutes. Then, like someone snapped their fingers, she just stopped crying, picked up her bottle and crawled into my lap. She smiled again. She  got up and wanted to walk around. I held her for a few minutes then put her back to bed without a problem. 

I think more parents should be made aware. If you're child has never done this before, it's  terrifying. You think something is seriously wrong because they're crying so hard, and look right through you like you're a ghost. 

But they tell you not to touch them, or really talk to them, and I believe in that as well. Doing so only makes them cry and thrash around harder. Make sure they're somewhere that they can't get hurt if they're kicking and throwing themselves around. 

And don't panic. They're not dying. It just seems like they are. 

Does anyone else know someone who has them?