Night Terrors

If you've followed my adventures with my cub from the beginning, you may recall a little rant about colic. In the beginning my cub had a short bout of colic. It was quite a journey for us and not one my favorite times as a new parent. One thing I have loved about our cub is his ease with naps and bedtime. My cub is the ideal baby when it comes to sleep. He started sleeping through the night around four months and it has been pure bliss since that time. We have a routine: bath, book, bottle, bed. After we read to him and he has his last bottle we lay him down for the night and that's it. No rocking or crying. That is until this past Tuesday night. We were sleeping peacefully in our room when we heard a piercing cry come over the baby monitor. I went into the cub's room and found him partially sitting up crying hysterically. I tried patting his back to calm him then I tried singing his favorite song. I even picked him up and held him close to me and rocked him. All to no avail. He absolutely could not be comforted. The hysterics intensified so I took him into the room with the Husband so we could examine him and make sure he didn't somehow hurt himself in his crib. We couldn't find anything. All the while my cub cried and I'm talking the kind of crying that makes you want to call an ambulance and go straight to the hospital. I of course started to freak out imagining the worst and maybe even the impossible. I realized that my son's eyes were open but it didn't seem that he was aware of our presence or of where he was. He had this blank disconnected stare yet he had the most gut wrenching cry. I literally went to pieces inside. The Husband took the cub and tried to console him while I sat in the chair in my room wrestling with taking the cub to the emergency room. Each shrill ripped a new chunk from my heart. I don't cry often and I was near tears. I felt so lost, confused, and afraid, mostly afraid. This was NOTHING like colic. Seriously, I'll take night after night of colic over what was happening. There was something different about this incessant crying. I can't really explain it. I tried laying him in the bed with me and we even went to his room to get his favorite blanket. I turned on the "Colors of the Wind" song from Pocahontas. This was the song I tried singing to him early on in the episode and he didn't respond but playing it seemed to do something. He slowly returned to us and stopped crying. His stare was still distant. We put the song on repeat and I rocked him, making sure to keep him close to my heart. He finally looked up at me and then took his tiny finger and traced the contours of mouth. Finally, he was aware and with us. His breathing returned to normal and then suddenly he was my energetic bouncy little boy, smiling and trying to play with us. We were so relieved that we didn't even care that it was now well after 1 a.m. in the morning. Once we were sure he was OK and back to  normal we debated putting him back in his crib. By rule we do not co sleep so this would have been a first. The sweet giggles of our son convinced us that if we did not put him back in his crib this was going to turn into an all night event. It took a while for him to go back to sleep. We were up too of course discussing what happened. Before we fell asleep it was decided....we were taking off the next morning to go to the doctor. The end result is apparently the cub suffers from night terrors. Over the past couple of weeks there were other moments where he awakened from his sleep crying but never like this. The doctor was hesitant to consider night terrors due to the cub's age. Apparently night terrors are more likely to occur after age one. At 10 months it is more common for him to have separation anxiety. The separation anxiety was quickly ruled out due to the fact that the crying does not stop once he is no longer separated from us. Also, the duration of the event. The bad one lasted almost 30 minutes. Lastly, the blank stare or disconnect. I can't really properly phase it right now. All these are classic night terror characteristics. Like colic there is nothing you can do. Essentially we are not to wake him up. We have to comfort him, keep him safe, and wait it out. Oh and this can last up to age 8. The frequency of occurrence varies. He may have several a week or one a month. Last tidbit that I found most interesting...they're hereditary. So after speaking to my mom I learned I used to have night terrors too. They lasted until I went to preschool. Parents have to disclose these kinds of things.