Confusional Awakenings Diary

So - since we started sleep progression with Jack his night terrors (or confusional awakenings) have all but disappeared. It's been a week and a half and there have only been one or two unconscious awakenings. Fabulous.

Now the problem is, we were operating on three known "dysfunctions". 1 for sleep and 1 for night terrors and 1 for waking in the middle of the night ready to play.

Solution for night terrors is that you reintroduce the nap as it's often a sign of over-exhaustion. If it's not due to the nap then you basically just have to power thru until age 4 when MOST kids grow out of it.

Solution for sleepless nights was to make a Sleep association change (from me in the room to me out of the room). This has been fantastic and even works with the night terrors as when he does wake up from them he doesn't need me to be there to put himself back to sleep.

Solution for waking in the middle of the night was to keep naps but push back bedtime. Done and done and done.

So, the sleep association thing made so much sense and such a difference and didn't seem to depend too much on the nap thing that I've been focusing on that. Look, I have two other kids and a lot of other things going on - maybe my brain can only handle so much. Whatever the reason, I have been telling myself *not* to move heaven and earth so that Jack will definitely nap. Of course, since we started the sleep association thing he has naturally seemed to nap a whole lot easier, so I just haven't been worrying about it.

Today though, today I specifically didn't worry about the nap and tonight, oh tonight, I am paying dearly for it.

CA (confusional awakening) #1 9:30-9:50. It has something to do with James (from Thomas the train) dumping where he's not supposed to. It lasts long enough to wake Finn so I take Jack out of his room so he can freak out in private. He never actually awakens, just falls on his face dead asleep. I put him back to bed.

CA #2: 10-10:10. This one has something to do with candy. He wakes up after ten minutes thoroughly confused and annoyed he's not in his bed. Me: Do you want to go back in your bed? Jack: YES! (tone is: of course i want to be in bed! why the hell did you get me OUT of bed you crazy woman?)

CA #3: 10:15- 10:20. Quicker but still unconscious.

CA #4: 10:25- 10:30 I take Finn out of the room, poor kid and put him back in the pack n play. Unconscious Jack isn't comforted by anything anyway, so he just stays screaming in his bed.

10:30 - 11:07 (present) - Jack awake and upset by his throat - which probably gets raw from all the screaming. Sleep association still working wonders because he doesn't actually need me to stay with him to fall asleep he just gets uber annoyed at the pain? phlegm? Who knows. But after I assure him it's okay to cough, he gets back into bed and says "Goodnight Momma" and off I go. Of course when I come IN he tells me tragically "it's not working" (sleep or coughing, I'm not sure).

It's textbook night terror pattern and unfortunately, I don't think I'll have definite sleep until 2-4. All because I skipped the nap.

I assume.

This is what drives us mothers crazy. This is why I don't want to participate in life outside the house. Because other kids can handle a disruption to their schedule, my kids can't... not often anyway.

The sleep association change seems to mean that its no longer important that the nap be PERFECT (time/place/length) but it still apparently needs to happen.

Okay, it's been ten minutes. Dare I get my hopes up and go to bed?


update: Finn woke up at 12:30am so I moved him back to his crib. Jack woke up at 3:30 thinking it was morning, but had no fuss with being walked back to bed and left. Jack woke up at 6:15am and Finn at 7. So I'm not totally discouraged by all this. Believe it or not, before last week's big sleep change this would have been considered a good night!