A phrase that I hate to use before the end of the year, before Christmas, etc. but this last week has been a rough stretch for us. The end of the year is crunch time for all of us, work, play, etc. But this past week has been especially rough, because the oldest has been going through night terrors again.

We’ve had a lot of changes between daycare and adjustments with schedules, etc. But the last few nights have been hard, because there isn’t much that I can pin point and directly say, yeah, that is causing the night terrors. Sure, maybe off his schedule and exhausted, that could definitely be an issue. His eating was ok, mostly fruit and a slice of pizza, so not a huge amount of sugar. Growing? Maybe?

But here is what I did realize this morning around 2:00 A.M., it doesn’t matter. We all go through a rough stretch from time to time. And even though he is having these night terrors, he doesn’t remember them in the morning, though he did say that he didn’t sleep well last night. But all in all, I really don’t think that he has any concept of what is going on. And, the other realization that I had, is that there isn’t a lot of solid advice on what to do either to resolve it. There were suggestions, some we’ve tried, some I discredit based on conversations with our pediatrician and a family friend that is a psychologist.

So tonight, a new routine, not exact, but I think that it will be close.

1. Dinner by 7 p.m. (usually they were eating around 7:30 p.m.) and no tv.
2. Cleanup the living room and watch 2 quick YouTube videos of Puff the Magic Dragon and Rainbow Connection.
3. Bath by 8 p.m.
4. Ready for bed and quiet time by 8:30 p.m.

Here is my logic. The boys are more active now and playing harder at daycare, thus they are getting exhausted quicker. We were letting the boys watch 4 YouTube videos and though I am not thinking that this is the issue that is triggering the night terrors, it is better safe than sorry to just make several changes, all at once. And finally, quiet time before bed, this will consist more of stories that I read and/or make up and tell them, as my father did for me.

I have no clue if this is going to work or not, but 3 nights in a row of sleeping sitting up in a recliner is paying its toll on me and I really need some sleep. Rough stretch, sure, it hasn’t been the easiest, but this year, as I reflect on the year, we’ve had a good year and more to come on that in a future post next week. But all in all, our rough stretch is just a part of being a parent. Just when you think that you’ve got things figured out, something changes and there may or may not be a reason for it, but you have to roll with it.