So, I think I have mentioned in this blog before that our son Asher has had sleep issues since he was very young. Mostly since we took his crib away from him at 18 months old and gave it to our 5 month old (instead of buying a new crib). (Note: We didn't make this mistake again the second set of kids 14 months apart; we now have two cribs.) He never stayed in the toddler bed. He always ended up in the king bed. This problem resulted in my not sleeping in my king bed because I wake so easily (and I can be miserable to be around when I don't get enough sleep).

In any case, we went from having sleep issues with our child, to finding out he had a brain tumor. OK. When a kid with a brain tumor lays down, the pressure builds up in his head and he gets a headache. Yeah, that would make me get up and cry and scream and crawl into bed with my parent, too. Although, hard to say, when did the tumor start growing?

In any case, we have never been real strict with Asher about staying in his own bed. I always figure, I just want him to sleep.

Once done with cancer treatment, home, and no more cancer in his head, things were okay. He still woke up in the night and found the king bed. Most nights. Some nights he actually slept in his own bed all night and we would be shocked. In the end, Scott didn't care. I was happy in my own bed in my own room; I didn't care. We're all good.

Now, something new has started, though. Worth noting and now tracking, to see how long this continues.

Monday night, November 17, 2008....this is when it began.

About 50 minutes to one hour after going to sleep, every night, Asher wakes up crying and screaming. When I go into his room, he is crying and screaming uncontrollably. He looks scared. I look into his eyes and I can feel the fear. He is all sweaty, but does not have a fever. After eight nights of this happening, I realized he was asleep, not awake. Any words he spoke could not be understood. One night he even pointed as he mumbled something, eyes as big as they could be. But he can't have a conversation with me. He doesn't seem to hear me or answer me. He shakes a bit. He continues to cry and scream, whether picked up, taken to the toilet, taken downstairs to check his temperature, etc. It does not last too terribly long, maybe only five minutes. And, in recent nights, he is more easily woken and if I give him a drink he goes right back to sleep, instantly. In the morning he never talks about these 'episodes.'

After half mentioning this to a few people, including a nurse at the hospital after his MRI, the term "night terror" was brought to my attention. I've read some on it tonight and it sounds exactly like what he is experiencing, however, not too far into his sleep. About an hour. As for what is causing it, not really sure. However, he has been sick with colds and ear aches/infections, which may have coincided with this starting. Also, yes, he tends to be quite tired by the end of the night, but he goes to bed around 6:30pm on a school night and 7:30pm on a non-school night. He's getting 12 hours of sleep on a school night. I have a strict routine. Especially now that Scott works late into the night, I put the kids to bed and they know the routine.

In the reading I did, it says this can be common in kids his age, and he can outgrow it....that would be good.