They're back again - Isaiah goes through seasons of them, and last night was a really good one. I think they correspond with him growing. He has been eating a lot, a little mouthier, and complains of aching feet and legs at times...so I guess his body is just totally giving him fits - but of all the "ailments" of growing these thing are the worst.
Last night he "woke up" crying. I went into his room and found him holding his ears like something was too loud then he would hug himself and fidget and squirm and move away from me. I talked to him - asked him what was upsetting...are you hurt, are you having a bad dream?...these questions he wouldn't answer - he would just cry. But the thing that freaks me out the most is that he will look right at me and have a total look of fear on his face - like he doesn't know who I am at all.
So I finally coax him off the bunk, and we take a walk (he takes my hand at this point). We go to the kitchen to get a drink - that usually snaps him out of it. Well, last night it took a few sips and a few minutes of blank expressions followed by looking at me and becoming terrified again. I asked him if he knew what room in the house he was in and he paused then said, "the living room" (we were in the kitchen). Then he looked at me and started getting scared again and he even poked his finger at me like he wanted to touch me to see if I was real, but was too scared to. I finally just grabbed him up in a hug and kept saying "it's mommy, it's your mommy, you're ok..." That finally snapped him out of it all - we went and read a chapter out of a book we're working on and then he went quietly to bed...luckily that was the only one of the evening.
The mind sure can do funny things and I don't like it.
2 comments:
Our Julia went thru this on and off for several years. She would look straight at me and give a blood-curdling scream, then run down the hall. I finally found out that if I took her to the bathroom and made her sit on the toilet, she would go. Then we'd walk back to her bed. I usually couldn't touch her, but she would respond to my commands. When she was back in bed, I would quote a scripture passage that she knew well. She would scream "NO! NO!" at first, then calm down and go back to sleep as I continued to quote. I found that if I headed her to the bathroom at the first signs of restlessness, we could avoid the loud screams and expressions of terror. I don't think she had any after the age of 10.
Hang in there; he will outgrow it.
Sounds very similar...I'll have to try some of your routines in dealing with it - I'm glad to hear they grow out of it!
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