Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A Really Long Night

Last night Chalyse woke up screaming at about 10:30. Yep, it was a night terror. She was inconsolable and wouldn't even let us hold her. She was completely terrified! If you have never seen this before, let me tell you it can be SO unnerving. They are asleep but look like they are awake. They don't recognize anything or anyone around them. The best thing to do when this happens is get them to lay down and go back to sleep.

As soon as we realized what was going on we tried to calm her and get her to lay back down. She wouldn't. She was so hysterical Tom and I didn't know what to do. We tried for about 10 minutes to calm her down to no avail. Imagine: Chalyse is hysterically screaming at the top of her lungs like she is being tortured. She will not let us comfort her, is afraid of us and trying with all her might to get away.

We decided to try to wake her up by turning on the lights and talking to her. I wanted so bad for her to know I was there to help her. She was standing on her bed just screaming and I asked her if she wanted Mommy to hold her. She finally seemed to hear me and said "ya" shakily through her tears. When i picked her up this time she did not push away but wouldn't let me move at all or she would freak out again and she still wouldn't stop screaming and crying. I was desperate to help her so i started offering he things. "Do you want to watch Monsters?" "Ya" She pushed down, ran to the living room climbed on the couch and sat quietly waiting for her movie.

Chalyse and I watched the movie and had a snack then I tried to put her back to bed but even though she was so tired she was too afraid to go back to sleep. She wouldn't even sleep in our bed with us she would just sit there. So i finally put her in front of another movie and went to bed. I went and checked on her about and hour later and she had finally fallen asleep. I left her there and went back to bed.

Around 4:00 Tom got up to go to the bathroom and tripped over Chalyse sleeping in the doorway of our bedroom. He moved her to her bed but about a half hour later she was back in the door way. Poor girl. I don't know why she didn't come get in the bed with us. Maybe she was still trying to stay awake. We moved her to our bed with us. She slept the rest of the night but every once in a while she would whine in her sleep. I hope this never happens again. I hate feeling helpless in comforting my terrified daughter.

Ironically enough Ellora slept really well. She only got up twice to eat.

5 comments:

  1. I am so sorry! That has to be one of the worst things ever. Joe and Emily never had one that bad - we were always able to get them to go back to sleep fairly quickly afterwards. I agree. There's nothing worse than seeing your child like that and not being able to help.
    -Cathy

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  2. Oh man, that would freak me out!! Gavin has had nightmares, but nothing like that!! Hopefully that never happens again poor girl :( So when are you coming back to Utah? Aren't you coming out in December??

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  3. We got our tickets just a couple of days ago. We're going to be back on Sat., Dec. 19!!! We're way excited. We miss all you guys!!

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  4. I'm soooo sorry. It is so awful to feel helpless and just have to watch your little ones suffering. Bless her heart...and yours!!! Love you and miss you....can't wait till December!!!

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  5. My sister started night terrors when she was elementary-school-aged, and she never told me! I never could figure out why she used to sleep with bazillions of stuffed animals in her bed, but I never took up the issue with her. It's only been in our adult years that she's told me about these horrible nightmares, where she would wake up and be seeing things in her room that weren't really there because she was actually still dreaming. It still happens to her once in awhile and it still completely freaks her out!

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