What a night!

So this adorable little boy above, our son Duke, has these things called night terrors. They are a parents worst nightmare (well close). He has had them for about a year. It all started on his second birthday at my inlaws house. He hadn't taken a nap and he was really tired. So I put him to bed, he fell asleep, and a short time after he woke up screaming. His eyes were open but they looked dark and blank. It took us forever to get him to calm down. He kept asking for me but didn't realize that I was right there. It was so scary!! Come to find out he was having a night terror. With this sleep disorder a person's sleep is disrupted by a frightful event (not a dream). They are not awake, but their eyes are open and they lash out in fear. They are completely inconsolible. We have been throught this a few times within the last year.

Well Duke decided to revisit this stage of sleep last night. I had just put the kids to bed and fell asleep along side Duke. Well he woke up crying, and the cry just became this uncontrollable scream. I took him into our bed and he started his routine of arching his back, eyes open (but dark and blank), and rolling all over the bed. After a quite a few minutes I realized he was having a night terror. It is the most scariest and helpless this in the world to experience. There was absolutely nothing Joe or myself could do for him. After about a half hour of this he finally calmed down. He fell back to sleep and a short time later he did it again! And then a third time -- this time was pretty scary as well. This was the first time it happened more than once. After a few hours of stress he finally went to sleep, but was extremely restless all night.

Now here he is playing playdough at the table like nothing happened. What a night -- I really hope this doesn't happen (at least any time soon).