So here’s a weird thing: For the last three weeks or a month, Ava has been waking up almost exactly 90 minutes after falling asleep and crying inconsolably for five minutes or so. You can darn near set your watch to it. We’ve been sliding onto bed next to her and patting her back or legs, but she doesn’t wake up during these episodes. She just cries and asks for her mommy, then falls back asleep.
Google informs us that we’re probably dealing with night terrors, or pavor nocturnus. Leah called our pediatrician to get more info on the disorder, but it sounds like it’ll resolve itself if we can manage to get Ava to sleep earlier. I’m not sure how we’re going to pull that off. As it stands, I start cooking dinner the minute I walk through the door in the evening. We sit down to eat sometime between 6 and 6:30, then it’s off to bath, books, and brushing before heading to bed about 8. Something is going to have to give.
Another option appears to be to wake Ava right before the time she typically experiences these episodes, the thinking being that it will interrupt her sleep cycle and avoid the bad dreams. I guess we could also try that. Heck, I wouldn’t mind hitting the sack at 9 myself, actually, but Leah gets grumpy when she doesn’t get her “me” time (which, ironically, she doesn’t like to spend alone).
Wish us luck.
