Night Terrors....

In addition to pink eye (Paige and Rose), colds, coughing, and an ear infection (Paige) affecting our sleep, Paige has been having night terrors once a night for about a week. She wakes up about 45 minutes to an hour after falling asleep and is totally unconsolable, confused, crying, yelling, squirming, and completely drenched in sweat. To clarify, they aren't the same as nightmares. She sometimes has her eyes open, sometimes not. She yells "I want my mommy!" when I'm already there. It is impossible to calm her down as she doesn't even know what is going on. Here is a more concise definition of night terrors:

"Children from age two to six are most prone to night terrors, and they affect about fifteen percent of all children,[1] although people of any age may experience them. Episodes may recur for a couple of weeks then suddenly disappear. The symptoms also tend to be different, like the child being unable to recall the experience, and while nearly arisen, hallucinate. Children who have night terrors are usually described as 'bolting upright' with their eyes wide open, with a look of fear and panic, and will often scream. They will usually sweat, breathe fast and have a rapid heart rate (autonomic signs). Although it seems like children are awake during a night terror, they will appear confused, will not be consolable and will not recognize others. Strong evidence has shown that a predisposition to night terrors and other parasomniac disorders can be passed genetically. Though there are a multitude of triggers, emotional stress during the previous day and a high fever are thought to precipitate most episodes. Ensuring the right amount of sleep is an important factor. Special consideration must be used when the subject suffers from narcolepsy, as there may be a link"

She has been having a lot of fevers lately, due to illness, which I assume is the trigger of these episodes. Also, another source claims that pain due to ear infections can cause it as well. The other interesting thing, as it says above, is that it can be passed genetically. Apparently Mike and Jen used to sleepwalk like crazy when kids, and Mike still talks in his sleep.

The toughest thing about it, besides the fact that it wakes Rose up, is that you can't do anything. Talking to her, trying to snap her out of it, yelling at her over her crying, and other measures only seem to make it worse. I have found that if I can get her to drink some water, or change her sweaty shirt, she will seem to calm down and fall right back to sleep, but this take about 10 or 15 minutes. I'm pretty shocked that this is happening at all, let alone once a night like clockwork. Every night I am so tired that I try to get into bed at 9:00 and it ends up being around 10:45 after I have dealt with Paige and Rose and their various issues. We had to laugh about it last night since it has been a really really rough 2 weeks. I can't even imagine that one day Rose will sleep through the night and we will all sleep all night again. It seems impossible.

Update! After Paige began her antibiotics for the ear infection, I am pleased to report that the night terrors have stopped (for now). I assume that is what was triggering them.