One
of the scariest sounds that I have ever heard is when we have been startled
from a deep sleep by the screams from our son echoing across the room through
the monitor. While my wife’s hearing is more in tune with the displeasures of
our son, when I am able to remain unconscious to the troubles around us, there
are times when it doesn’t matter how sound a slumber, the scream that our son
makes could wake anyone up… even me!
Just
over a week ago this seemed to be the pattern for a few nights as our son
spiked a fever well into triple digits. It was a time of little sleep, especially
for my wife, as all we could do for a couple of nights was monitor, give him
medicine, hold him, and dunk him in the tub if he got too hot. Unfortunately, I
am little help during these times as our son insists on having his mommy but will
occasionally want his daddy within his sight line. This episode, this sequence
of nights, was far beyond those that we have dealt with previously.
Even
without a temperature and feeling perfectly fine, there are moments when our
son will wake up and make some noise before falling back to sleep. What can I
say, he is loud when he shifts just like his daddy. There are also moments when
he will fuss or even whimper for a minute or two before he either screams
because of some uncomfortable padding under his bottom or he will unleash a
different kind of sound that fills the night, lay down, and sleep better than
he did before he woke up.
There
was also a period of adjustment when we moved into the house when we couldn’t
quite get the thermostat right… our son has become rather particular with
regard to ideal sleeping temperature in his room. Over the first couple of
weeks we were able to figure it out. Who am I kidding, my wife is the one that fine-tuned
the temperature. And now, if there are nights that are a little warmer or
cooler, our son adjusts his position in the crib sleeping either in a slightly
cooler spot near the wall or a little warmer away from it.
And
while we have done everything that we can to make him as comfortable as
possible, sometimes there are nights when he doesn’t feel well. Sometimes there
are evenings when he is startled by a nightmare (also a scream that is hard to
forget). Sometimes he simply loses track of his stuffed animal and/or binkie. And
other times there are nights when he gets a little lonely being on the second
floor by himself or when we didn’t spend enough time playing with him during
the day and needs a little more snuggle time with mommy and/or daddy. But these
nights are nothing in comparison to that heart wrenching siren.
