The Ugly Truth about Night Terrors

Good morning guys! I want to thank you all so much for reading my little blog and would love some feed back on some of the things YOU would like to read about and find interesting. Keeping in mind, of course, that this blog is mostly about the journey of being a parent!! With that being said, it opens up MANY topics to be discussed, many crafts to be shown, and many recipes to be tried! I can't wait to continue on this journey and to make it better!

My son, Little Roo, has been having night terrors through the night all week long. He has had night terrors before in his young age (he will be 2 next month) but they have been worse this week and have been leaving me very worried. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am against co-sleeping with your child. I do not find it to be safe or good for that child; however, it is an opinion and choice of mine and I respect any parent that chooses to do it. It's just not for me and my family. Well, this WAS the case until this week. Little Roo has been in a toddler bed for about a month now and has been doing a fabulous job! I have been so proud of how well he transitioned. This week he has been so upset that I will normally let him sleep in the bed with his daddy and I go sleep on the couch. I feel that he needs that extra sense of security. After doing some research today though.....I may change my stance on that.

For any of you parents that are going through this, I have gotten some excellent advice from friends and have also done some research that I found to be truly helpful. First thing you should know, there is NOTHING that you have done to cause this to be happening to your child. The article I read from babycenter.com had a sleep expert, Jodi A. Mendall, speaking about your children and night terrors. She said that 15% of children, starting with toddlers up to adolescents, are being affected by night terrors on a regular basis. It is said that there is nothing you can do to stop it. It has to run it's course which can last any where from 2 minutes to 40 minutes (Little Roo has them for a little longer than 40 minutes) and is normally within the first hours of sleep.

This is where I get a little confused. Roo is experiencing all signs of night terrors but his episodes do not start until around 2-4am. Jodi A. Medall says that this is the time where nightmares occur and that there is a difference between the two. With nightmares a child is aware of what is happening, can be awakened, and too scared to go back to sleep without comfort. With night terrors, they can not be awakened or consoled and they go straight to sleep after the episode ends with no recollection of what has occurred. *SIGH* So, I am at a loss.

So, this is the ugly truth about night terrors and I hope that it helped some of you as I know having some info about it helped me!

Any suggestions or comments about what is going on with Roo? Night terrors or Nightmares???

Have a great and productive day, friends!

link to article on babycenter: http://www.babycenter.com/0_night-terrors-why-they-happen-and-what-to-do-about-them_67331.bc