The Night Terrors

I'm killing two birds with one stone here because I'm too tired to write out a whole post updating the night terror issue...this is an excerpt from an e-mail I wrote in response to a friend's e-mail. And here's where I wrote about it two years ago - they'd already been happening for a long time at that point.

Things have been really good! I am happy a lot of the time, but things are also very crazy. I feel like if I could just stop time once in a while I could catch my breath! I am always just one step behind being caught up, you know? And even when I do catch up on things, it all builds back up so quickly. Like the laundry...what's up with all the laundry?? I used to have a 'laundry day' but now it's like what day DON'T I have laundry!

I got a few responses from people about the night terrors. Surprisingly, not that many people said their kids experienced them. I thought it was far more common. Then I finally did some reading up on it, and Jacob fits the definition to a T. I'm just concerned with the frequency of night terrors and the longevity of them. And here's the big thing I learned - sleep deprivation is the biggest trigger of night terrors. Well there you go, we are constantly in a state of sleep-deprivation around here. That makes me feel like a crappy mother that I can't get my kid to sleep at night because we don't have enough self-discipline. We are now teaching him the definition of 'sleep hygiene' and putting it into action. We'll see how long that lasts.