The fight that i described in yesterday's post was nothing compared to the night we had in this house last night. i managed to go to bed early (for me) at 10:20. THANK GOD, because at about 11:20, my husband came into bed and inadvertently woke me up. then it was back to trying to fall asleep when, at 11:39 (i did look at the clock), M started screaming. She is prone to nightmares and even worse, night terrors. This meant we were most likely in for a long haul. I went into her room and tried to comfort her, which she did not allow me to do- this meant night terror. If she's having a nightmare, she will usually wake up when i touch her. night terrors are a whole different ball game. it's pretty close to watching the exorcist, close up and in the action. her body gets possessed by whatever she's experiencing and she cannot get out. she flails, she kicks, she screams, she punches, she fights the dream and whoever is around her. but she has no idea that this is all happening. and she cannot be woken up from it.
last night, i tried a few new techniques that a friend recommended, but, unfortunately, to no avail. last night's terror lasted 33 minutes (again, i did glance at the clock.) within these 33 minutes, the baby woke up (of course), so my husband went to be with her. she screamed for much of the time i was listening to my older daughter scream. (if i haven't written about this before, this was pretty much how every night of the first couple months of B's life went in our household. i did not miss this.)
by the time M came to, and i calmed her down, switched places with my husband and got the baby back to sleep, it was roughly 12:20a.m. (i glanced at a clock that was still flashing from losing the power from 6-8 earlier in the evening.) M was in our bed watching cartoons and seemed in a much better state of mind. so, i brought her back to her room, where i kept the light on for her and we tried to get back to sleep. here was where the strange part came (ok, maybe not exactly here!) usually, M will not remember her night terrors at all. in fact, she usually seems pretty confused to see us in her room when she snaps out. but last night, she was scared to go back to bed and kept talking about her bad dream. when i asked what it was about, she couldn't remember, but it really rocked her. in my motherly-guilt-way, i blamed the fight we had been in right before bed. who knows if that was it or not.
it took her two more hours to fall asleep. and i'm not talking about deep sleep. i just mean eyes closed. it was a long and exhausting night. at 2:00a.m., i threw in the towel, woke up my husband and switched places again. i fell fast asleep, and stayed there until 5:30 when the baby woke up again. that was pretty much it for me, i never really fell back to sleep.
somehow, we're all up and in pretty decent spirits given all the tension and sleep deprivation we experienced through the night. i'm looking forward to 7:00 tonight. i'm putting the girls and myself to bed and praying that we miraculously make it to the morning... we need it. we really do.
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