Spoons Everywhere

Lizzy, Me, and Tiger

Lizzy is overtired. I know this for several reasons: her eyes have big circles under them, she's Dropping her Spoon at regular intervals, and - most tellingly - she had an episode last night.

She's had these since she was tiny, but they've become fewer and further between as she's learned to sleep through the night. They're categorized as sleep terrors, which was explained to me when she was a baby as "sleep-walking for the pre-walker". As she learned to walk, sometimes she would actually wake up in the morning and she was just kind of out of it. I took her to the doctor after one of these, and it turned out that they were - again - essentially sleepwalking.

Tired Daddy and Baby

These night terrors consist of either a) shrieking inconsolably and not being able to be calmed (as is common for night terrors) or b) being totally out of it and having the shakes. When this second one happens, she looks as though she's coming out of anesthesia, and we were concerned it was seizure activity. This is why we took her to the pediatrician, who sent us to the neurologist, who confirmed that yes, it was in fact a variation on sleep terror. What I wrote to a group of friends was this: Doc says he feels that when Lizzy is awakened in the middle of REM sleep, she can't wake up properly and is therefore shaking and non-responsive and sleepy until she gets a nap, and then she's fine. Basically sleepwalking, and since she IS the one who has had night terrors which is related, this is not surprising, However, he did refer me to a pediatric neurologist at Children's just to rule out any kind of seizure disorder.

So here's hoping she sleeps well tonight, as I do not want a repeat of last night's inconsolable screams. And I'm sure my new downstairs neighbor is not currently a fan of Lizzy, who is trying to keep herself awake by jumping up and down and shrieking like a maniac. Friday Game Night is seriously exciting for her.