Night Terror

Veronica may or may not suffer occasionally from night terrors (crying inconsolably and inexplicably at night while not really being awake), but Wednesday night she was a night terror (for me at least). Actually, Wednesday was a banner night for all three kids (although Ethan’s sleeping problem was just a bad dream, and he was fast asleep again quickly once he climbed into bed with John). 

Veronica went down smoothly enough, and slept through the mini construction project outside her door. (We had someone come out and mount the TV on the wall — and put the cords inside the wall — to protect Mr. “Look What Happens When I Push This” Colin. They were running late, so they didn’t get to our house until about 6:30.) But at about 10:45 she woke up screaming. At the top of her lungs. And the girl has vocal projection that would make an opera singer weep with jealousy. 

Veronica is my baby this week (John and I each take a baby and trade off periodically), so I went in to calm her down. After patting her bottom and rubbing her back for a while, she seemed calm (but still awake), so I decided I would move over to the bed so I could lie down and just hold her hand through the crib slats. 

Big mistake. Little Missy stood up and started really screaming (and I thought she was loud before). Even rubbing her back wasn’t doing any good. From this point I tried every trick I had: Rubbing her back, patting her bottom, stroking her head, singing to her, shushing her, picking her up, rocking her. No good. 

Finally, while I was holding her in the rocking chair (going deaf from the screaming and ready to fall over from exhaustion), I decided I wanted to let her know I still loved her, even though I was frustrated with her screaming. So I whispered “I love you stinky face” (one of her current favorite books) in her ear. 

Mid scream she stopped, sat up and said, “Book?”

So we read Stinky Face in the dark (the advantage of a book in heavy rotation with twin toddlers — you can “read” it with the lights off) and followed it up with Please, Puppy, Please (the all-time favorite, which has been loved to shreds — literally). She finally was calm enough to bring her into bed with me. Unfortunately, it still took her another hour to actually fall asleep (at about 1:45).

Then, at 4:15, she sprang up screaming again. (Did I mention the opera-singer lungs?) And nothing would stop her this time. I finally got so frustrated/angry/wiped out that I plopped her in the rocking chair with her books, turned on the light and went back over to the bed to lie down. Neither of us slept again, but at least she stopped screaming and I didn’t have to worry about her waking up the boys (if they were still asleep). 

Veronica, after about 4 hours of sleep, greeted the day cheerful and ready for anything. Mommy, not so much. 

Veronica got to take a nice nearly-three hour nap. Mommy got to work. 

Surprisingly, Mommy ended the day feeling more refreshed than I’ve felt in weeks. And Veronica slept through the night last night. (Or at least she was quiet all night. We can’t always tell if she’s slept.)

Even more surprisingly, she didn’t wake up Ethan or Colin (who is fighting a cold and isn’t sleeping very well himself as a result).