John M. woke up at about 12:30 a.m. Friday crying. Only, the crying soon turned into screaming. Lots of it. Nothing would calm him down. I walked him around, I popped the noopie in the screaming mouth multiple times, offered him juice, a bottle, food . . shoot, I would have offered him Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket if I had one.
30 minutes later, continuous screaming. Mark had taken his temperature, and we had checked every inch of his little bottle for the culprit. The sprinkling of the holy water hadn't worked (okay, not really). We had no clue what was wrong. He had never done this before.
30 minutes later, we just sat him on the bed and watched him scream. His little body was actually trembling, he was crying so hard. I thought about taking him to the emergency room, but I wasn't sure what to say. Um, 'my baby is screaming for no apparent reason and won't stop. Can you check him for something, anything? Maybe he needs his oil changed, or a new battery?'.
I finally scooped him up and told Mark I was going to take him for a ride in the car to maybe put him to sleep. I didn't care if that ride was a long one, even to northern Maine, as long as he stopped screaming. Mark gave him some ibuprofen for good measure and I brought him outside to put him in the van. In about 2.1 seconds, the screaming (which had gone on for over an hour) stopped. Just like that. We could hear the crickets chirping outside. John M. just looked at me with his little tiny mouth finally closed, and I asked him 'hear the crickets?' and he says 'ya' and grins. Followed by 'dada'. I hand him to Mark, he pats him on the back for a few minutes, carried him inside, put him in bed and that was the end of that.
I have no idea what happened. All I know is I've never seen a child like being outside like my boy does. I think I'm going to pitch a little John-tent in my backyard and let him live out there. He'd love it.
27 comments:
oh wow that is totally bizarre....maybe he was having a bad dream and couldn't tell you what it was? I had that happen to us one time, it totally freaked us out and she just wouldn't stop crying....it must have been one bad dream!!
hopefully tonight will be better and that is awesome how much he likes the outdoors!
do you really think he was screaming to go outside, or that just jolted him to stop?
wow!
really strange.
I'm glad he's okay. CJ feels the same way about going outside. She takes my hand and leads me to the door, and if I tell her, "Not now," she throws herself on the floor and screams.
What in the world?? Maybe it was a night terror? It would have scared the BEJEEZ out of me!!! Criminy!!
I'm glad the crickets cured him.
Aw! The poor little guy! I'm sure it had you scared. I'm glad that the crickets were able to help. :)
How weird. I'm glad he's okay.
Our boys would be BEST buddies! :)
I was thinking the same thing Holli said...a bad dream? But an hour is awful long time to be so upset about it.
Holy crap! That would have given me a heart attack!
Well handled, Mom!
That would have freaked me out. Caitlin did that once when she was 2 in the car with my mom on the way to eat lunch. I had to turn around and drive the 45 minutes home and we never got to enjoy our lunch outing. I think it was just a good old fashioned tantrum. It was scary.
Oh the screaming and not knowing what to do must have been awful. I bet it was a night terror. From what I've heard, those are horrible. I think they aren't even really awake, that's why you can't calm them. Hope he doesn't have anymore.
Oh, we've had that here, too. I don't know if it's a bad dream or something. But we had to take her outside to break the trans, too. I'll let LB come live in the tent with John M. :=)
How unnerving! Could it have been a night terror, and being outside was sufficient transition that he awoke?
(I just noticed I'm not the first commenter to have suggested this!)
I hope that it was an isolated occurrence for him!
Are his ears still hurting him? My girl use to do that in the middle of the night when her ear infection had not cleared up.
Funny about the crickets!
gas was the culprit for mason and melana in the middle of the night all the time....i am glad the outdoors made him stop...that is frustrating because you just don't know what to do...thank god mine can tell me what is wrong now...
Wow. That's really bizarre. Kids, eh?
Man, I hear ya. Not that I have had that type of crying session but I can relate. Glad to hear that everything went well.
My son did that when he was about John M.'s age. It was his molars coming in. As soon as the tylenol kicked in the screaming stopped and he went back to sleep. It happened a couple of times close together and then it was over. Hope you've had better nights since.
Space aliens? sunspot activity? Bad dream?
hHope you all get many good nights rest henceforth!
WOW weird. I would have gone out of my mind. We haven't experienced that yet but if it happens I'll try taking her outside too. Glad he settled right away after that. how frustrating when they can't tell you what's wrong!
If he is around age 3-5, it's possible that it is night terrors and what you described is what it sounds like. I have experienced that when my now 5 year old was 3 about 2 times. It was strange.
Kids are such odd creatures... with 5 of them, I thought I'd experienced just about anything one could experience...
But they STILL catch me off guard.
Thanks for your sweet thoughts today.
Hugs
I've been outta the loop, and AOL>
Its great to see that I am not the only Mom who has experienced this crying phenom.
I hope you have a great day, and that it gets better.!
Okay I haven't read all the comments so I'm not sure if someone said this or not, but it could have been a night terror. All of my kids have had at least one of them. NOTHING can stop the crying..they just scream for what seems like hours. And then just like John M...it stops. It's awful though while it is going on.
One of my sons did this when he was about 2 1/2. When I tried to get close to him to pick him up, he screamed louder and started hitting at me. All I could do was stand and watch until the screaming was over and lead him back to bed. It is very unsettling. We only experienced it once....hope it's an isolated incidence for you!
hey renee! finally catching up on some blogs! :)
sorry to hear about the screaming! glad being outside worked. i have also in the past thought about the car ride to make it stop! :)
-tara
We've had fun nights like that. The outdoors seem to cure M of most complaints. But I've also had to drive her around aimlessly at 1AM before because I couldn't get her to stop crying or go to sleep... And just as she would fall asleep, if I tried to go home, she'd wake up again.
Glad all was well in the end!
Teething?
My kids have done this a couple of times. I usually try the non-drug soothing techniques then ask myself if I'm nuts and go for the Ibuprofen, which always works.
Hope you are having (had?) a great vacation!
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