Night Terrors Revisited

Night Terrors the second time around are so different.  And it has to do with us knowing exactly whats going on and also just a little on how they are just a tad different.  This is a chronicle of Finn's type of night terrors - which I think are considered "night awakenings?" Shoot I have to look back at my own blog to remember the name.  Night "Terror" as a term is saved for when the subject actually runs or flails around.  For my boys it has always been sitting bolt upright screaming their head off as if someone is hurting them.  With Jack I don't feel like I have a good memory of his face or pattern because by the time we figured out he was experiencing night terrors we fixed them basically the same night because just like Finn they were exhaustion related.

SO yes, first off, just like GI JOE used to say "Knowing is half the battle."  So instead of sit there and try to figure out what's wrong or snap Finn out of the nightmare or sleep like we did with Jack, we just pick Finn up and move him out of the room to finish his night terror off in safety and away from the other kids (like we finally did with Jack the few times he had one again).

For Jack, probably because the poor guy was exhausted and we didn't know it,  the behavior of the sleep terror kind of... was within character.  Oh Jack, I'm so sorry we didn't understand you earlier.

Oddly enough, because Finn is a much mellower temperament, it's a little more disconcerting to me when Finn is struck with a night terror.  He shakes and stares either straight at me or to the wall and screams in fear or upset.  His eyes are dilated.  He doesn't want to be touched.  Talking to him gives no response.

AND, differing from Jack again, Finn never does wake up from his night terror - he just moves right through it back to deep sleep.  Jack would cry and cry... then look around and realize he wasn't in his bed and speak to us - he would wake up and then be perfectly able to go back to sleep.

I find this stage of Finn's night terror (after the screaming, straight to deep sleep) pretty funny in comparison to the hellish ten minutes before it.  Still sad, but at least I know its over for us both.

I don't love the idea that he's having some sort of nightmare while totally asleep (vs. night terror) either.  I'd prefer to think that if my babies aren't screaming they are having lovely dreams of driving racecars or fighting for the autobots or something.