Night Terrors

The McKay boys are not known for their sleeping abilities. It took Hunter 2 years to sleep through the night consistently and it looks like Luke is going down the same path. We thought we had Hunter on a solid sleep schedule until recently when we think he has developed night terrors. He will wake up at night usually between 11pm and midnight screaming no, and thrashing around in bed. He will not acknowledge what you are saying to him, you can't calm him and basically can only make the episodes worse. This lasts anywhere from 10-30 minutes.

I mentioned this at lunch with my friend Rachel and her family on Saturday and her sister (an elementary school teacher) recommended the reward system of a treat bag. If he sleeps through the night in the morning he can pick a treat out of a bag. Saturday night we tried it, he slept through the night and he picked a dum dum lollipop to have as his treat the next morning. We were so excited, couldn't believe how well it worked.

Until last night. He woke at 11pm screaming. It took 30 minutes to bring him out of it, he woke Luke up in the process so we were each going between rooms trying to calm each down. Finally Hunter feel back asleep. 10 minutes later he was back up, awake this time, in full tantrum mode, out of bed, kicking and screaming on the floor and took his pajamas off. After about 15 minutes calmed him again and this time the only way for mom to get sleep was to send Hunter downstairs to lay on the couch while Kerry was working. When Kerry was done he carried him back upstairs.

This morning Hunter came in our room at 6:30 am asking for his treat for sleeping through the night. I reminded him he didn't sleep well at all, and he started his usual tantrum, screaming for the treat. We will continue this treat strategy for a week. If no success we will move on to Plan B (yet to be defined, suggestions?)