Melissa not sleeping at night

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

As I said in my last post Melissa hasn't been sleeping at night. It started over a week ago on the 22nd. She woke up around 11:00pm screaming like something had hurt her. At first we let her cry it out, but her cry got worse so I went in to check on her. She was scared to death. It took me about 30-40 minutes to get her to calm down. I checked her over and nothing was wrong with her. No fever, no wet diaper, nothing. I know it wasn't her teeth bothering her because she has never acted like this before. I had to rock her back to sleep finally after and hour of getting her calm down and back to sleep I but her back in her bed. Two hours later the same thing again. Screaming!! It's not a cry like I know it was screaming and calling out for Dada this time. Paul goes in this time to check on her and she is standing up with her arms out. She held on tight to Dada and didn't want to let go. What is going on with her? I thought maybe she is having bad dreams. I read that at this age night terrors start. Could she be hurting and we don't know it? It's so hard to know when she can't tell you whats wrong. Fast forward a week and it's still going on.
I called her doctors office on Monday and talked with the nurse told her what was going on. She asked all kinds of questions, have you changed anything in her room, has she been eating new foods, etc......... She suggested that I bring Melissa in that afternoon for a check up. Melissa has always been a good sleeper so this was not normal for her. Her doctor check her out and no ear infections, but did find that she has two ulcers in her mouth. One on each cheek. Could that be causing this? We don't know. Her doctor did suggest we give her Motrin before bed to help with pain of the ulcers and also give her Benadryl that helps numb the ulcers? He told us this last time she had ulcers in her throat. We all know that Benadryl makes you sleep also. Another thing is Melissa has a night light and he suggest that we get a blue light bulb and see if that helps. It still gives you enough light to see, but its' not as bright as a regular bulb.
So Monday night we give her the medicine and we didn't hear from her until 7:00am. PTL we all got some good sleep! Last night same thing, but this time with the blue light. She slept until 3:30, but woke up talking and playing in her bed. I didn't check on her, she sounded like she was ok. Then about 30 minutes she started crying. I was hoping she would put her self back to sleep. Nope I had to go in an check on her. Her diaper was wet so I changed it and back to bed she went. She put herself to sleep.

I wonder to myself if the Benadryl and Motrin are really working or is she just going through a faze! No one knows. After tonight we are supposed to take her off of either the Motrin or Benadryl and she how she does. I think the Benadryl will be first! I don't like giving her that stuff.

It has been a long week for all of us. If you have been through this with your child or kids I would love to hear what you have to say. If Melissa is having bad dreams I don't know what to do for her.

Traci