For the past 6 months my now 3 year old (she was 2 years 9 months when it started) has been having parasomnias. We thought it was nightmares at first where several days a week she would come to our bedroom crying in the middle of the night. We’d pick her up, comfort her, put her back to bed. I always thought it was odd how quickly she would calm down after a supposed nightmare. Then it turned into her just quietly walking to our room. We thought we had created a habit out of comforting her, so we stopped really engaging, would quietly walk her back to her room and that went on for a few weeks. Then it turned into she would quietly come to our room, not even open the door, we would just find her standing and staring at the door or sitting down outside our room and as soon as she would see us she would walk back to her room on her own without us telling her too, and that’s when we started to figure out that she wasn’t awake. By the time we figured this out, it was around January and her episodes had escalated to basically every single night, often multiple times. Since coming across the term parasomnia, we started trying to do scheduled awakenings which worked for a week. She would have 0-1 episodes in the night, usually 6-8 hours after the awakening if she had one. Then we went out of town for the weekend, she refused a nap, we missed the awakening window that night and she had an episode that woke her sister who then turned on the bedroom light fully waking them both up. She was up for an hour, skipped her nap again that day, and it has been hell ever since. Since Feb. 14 I think there has been one night without an episode and the last 2 weeks or so she’s pretty much settled on episodes every 3 hours. She’s pretty consistently crying when she comes to our door, then calms on the way back to her room. We’re still not picking her up or engaging much at all, we say “it’s bedtime” or something like that and tuck her in when she lies down. She’s also started fighting naps again which is making her so overtired which makes her episodes worse and we cannot break the cycle. We’ve stopped the scheduled awakenings because her first episode timing kept jumping around, anywhere from 2.5-4 hours after falling asleep so it became useless.
Her dad and I are really struggling with the fragmented sleep and it just doesn’t seem like there any light at the end of the tunnel. We did take her to the pediatrician this week but it wasn’t very helpful or reassuring. She said we can try an iron supplement and see if maybe her issues are connected to low iron, but otherwise “they almost always outgrow it by 7 or 8.” Well, that’s great since since I haven’t slept in 6 months and she’s only 3.
This is what it’s looked like since the end of February.
Feb 27 no nap. asleep 6pm, scheduled awakening 9:15. true wake up at 1:30am. No parasomnias
Feb 28 no nap. asleep 5:55pm. Scheduled awakening at 9:30. 11:50pm episode
March 1 2 hour nap ending around 2pm, but busy evening and took over an hour to fall asleep. Lights out 6:45 asleep 7:50pm scheduled awakening 11:15. Episode at 4am
March 2 1.5 hour nap, woke upset at 1:40pm but wouldn’t go back to sleep. Nighttime asleep 6:55pm. Scheduled awakening 10:30. Episode 12:45am
March 3 awake 5am. 1 hour nap at MotherMs Day Out till 2:05pm. Asleep 7:00pm. Small arousal 9:30. Scheduled awakening 12:00am. Episodes at 1:00 and 3:30
March 4 awake 5:30am. 1 hour nap MDO till 2pm. Asleep 7:05. Episodes at 11pm and 2am
March 5 awake 5am. 30 min MDO nap ending 2pm. Sleep 7:10. Episodes at 10pm, 1:50am, 4am.
March 6 awake 5:20am. Nap 12:10-2:15pm. Sleep 7:15. Awakening 10:30. Episode at midnight. Thunderstorm woke up at 4am
March 7 awake 5:45am. Refused nap. Sleep 6:30pm. Arousal 9:30. Awakening 9:55. Full blown episode 10:05. Calm arousals 1am, 5am (spring forward), awake for water 5:45.
March 8 awake 6:40. Refused nap. Asleep 6:37pm. Awakening 9:12. Issues all night long. 10:50 she came to the room quietly, walked back without talking with my husband. 2:15 she ran through the house to our room so I think she was awake. 2:50 she went potty, didn’t seek anyone out which isn’t normal, but turned the light on in the bathroom so I would think she woke up. 3:30 she was at my room calling “mommy” was definitely awake. 4:15 at my door again, seemed awake. 5:00 crying in bed, not sure if she was awake or not.
March 9 woke her up 7am. Nap refusal. Asleep 6:40pm. No awakening, episodes 11:50, 2:15/2:30, 4:50. All calm walking, no crying at the door except 1 brief cry at the 2:00 episode
March 10 awake 5:40am. 12:50-2:05 nap. Asleep 7:30pm after 6:50 lights out. Thunderstorm woke her up at 10:30, not a full upset but whimpering at the door at 1:30, possibly awake or more alert episode at 4:30.
March 11 awake 6:00. Nap refused. Asleep 6:55pm. Episodes at 9:30, 12, and 2:30. 930 was completely disoriented. She was crying, ran to her door, then circled the room before finally coming out and crying about her water that was right there on her bed. When I walked her back to her room, I handed her her water and she sat there drinking it with her eyes half open, then lay down and settled. At 12 and 230 she was calmer, but still whimpering at our door. Again at 5:20