Night Terrors and a Baptism of Sorts

So when we thought our nighttime struggles with Josiah had dissipated into just the occasional night waking once a week, we get hit with NIGHT TERRORS! In general, nighttime had been a terror with Josiah from birth to about age 2 1/2. Now he is having real night terrors, every night.

Below is an excerpt from Dr. Sears website about Night Terrors:

It's the middle of the night and you are awakened by your child screaming from his bedroom. You rush in to see what's wrong and you find him sitting up in bed with a blank stare but very agitated. You try to wake him, asking him what is wrong but he doesn't respond, he just keeps screaming. You are scared and don't know what to do. After a few minutes, your child goes back to sleep and in the morning he doesn't remember the episode.

CHARACTERISTICS OF NIGHT TERRORS:

• Your child seems frightened, but cannot be awakened or consoled.
• Your child may sit up in bed, or walk around the room, screaming or talking senselessly.
• Your child doesn't acknowledge you, his eyes may be open but he seems to stare right through you.
• Objects or persons in the room might be mistaken for dangers.
• Episodes usually last between 10 and 30 minutes.
• Usually occur in children 1 to 8 years old.
• Your child cannot remember the episode in the morning.
• Usually happens within 2 hours of falling asleep.
• Night terrors are harmless and each episode will end on its own.

Yes, he meets ALL of the characteristics. He wakes up at exactly 11pm every night screaming like he is being attacked. He's sweating, pale, shaking, sometimes running around his room or out of his room, sometimes still in bed, his eyes are kind of open, but it's like he has no conscious awareness that I or Justin are with him. He screams for about 10-20 minutes and finally he will just snap out of it. THIS. IS. CRAZINESS! I have never seen anything like it. He will usually go right back to sleep but the hard part is is that all this insanely loud screaming wakes Paul up and sometimes I can't get Paul to go back to sleep until midnight or later. Oh.My.GOODNESS. I am tired.

One night last week he started out sleeping in my bed and I was able to witness, from the start, one of these night terrors. It was 10:59pm and I was waiting.... from a deep, snoring sleep he sits straight up in bed (it looks like he's almost possessed), eyes squeezed closed, and instantaneous shrill, ear piercing screaming begins. I immediately grab him and put him in my lap and hold him, he writhes around screaming, "MOMMY, HOLD YOU, HOLD YOU!" He does this for about 10 minutes, stops, opens his eyes, I lay him back down and he says, "Blanket please". So I pull the sheet over him and he goes right back to sleep. These night terrors are the freakiest thing I have ever experienced.

His whole life he has had difficulty transitioning from deep to light sleep cycles, which is why he only slept in 45 minute increments until he was 1! I think this is a result of that plus the addition of vivid dreams and wild imagination and the inability to transition from unconscious to conscious awareness. I hope these terrors don't last too long...

Josiah got baptized.... well, sort of .....

....A few weeks ago we celebrated another baptism party at church. We baptized 7 that night and had a fun time swimming afterwards at the hotel pool. While we were setting up I had a talk with Josiah about the water and no running ect. Just before we were about to start Josiah and his friend Emily were sitting (at the deep end of the pool) hanging their feet in the water. Emily's mom and I were standing right there beside them, I was getting my camera settings ready to take pictures and she was holding Paul. All of a sudden she yells, "JOSIAH'S DOWN!!!" I look down and see him falling into the water. She and I both reach down to grab him. She pulls him by his hair up and I grab his body out of the water. He was kicking really good so he didn't sink and was only in the water 2 seconds.... but it felt like an eternity. I think my heart stopped. When I saw him in the water I immediately began to refresh my mind on CPR basics! After he was out of the water I was hugging him and he pushes me away and told me, "Mommy, I'm OK, I'm OK!" and went to find his friend Emily. I wasn't ok!!! I had a mild heart attack! That boy, he has no fear or sense of danger and he is very hard-headed that he doesn't want to listen or obey. I really need to read that book Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (HEY JILL, you know who you are - go get this book and read it too if you haven't already!)