Night Terrors

It would appear that Simon has night terrors.  I can't remember the first time he had one but it must have been over the summer.  He had maybe one a month until the past two months.  They're absolutely no fun.  In case you've never experienced one, this is kind of how they go, at least for Simon.  Sometime around 9 or 10 he'll wake up crying.  It's hard to tell if he's having one until I go pick him up.  I can't really distinguish these cries from regular crying.  I pick him up and he's rigid and won't calm down at all.  I try to shush him and he screams even worse by then.  So then I bring him out to the living room in the light and can see his eyes are slightly open but he's not focused on anything and doesn't really seem to be awake.  He'll writhe and twist on my lap while I try to reassure him that mama's here and everything is okay.  What we have found works best to get him to come to is turning on Yo Gabba Gabba. Eventually he'll quiet down and then fall back asleep. 

It seems to happen when he's overtired.  With our schedules he doesn't get to nap properly the days we both go to work and it's far enough from my brother and sister-in-law's house that he falls asleep semi-frequently on the way home.  That seems to make it worse.  We get home late so it's pretty much wake him up out of the car seat and fight with a screaming boy to get him in his jammies and maybe a bottle before putting him to bed.  So now we do what we can to keep him awake on the ride home.  I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the trauma of what he went through last year.  I'm sure that doesn't help.  I sure hope he outgrows this soon.  It's hard on everyone and even though they say kids don't remember them, it sure looks like it's hell for him.