Night terrors

He has no idea why I keep putting a flashing box (camera) in his face. (View More Photos)

Tyler likes to learn new tricks. Last night, at around 2am, Tyler woke up, screaming bloody murder. It was a scream that Sarah and I have never heard, and it scared the ever-living crap out of us. Sarah was out of bed and on her feet before my eyes were completely open. I honestly have no idea how she can move so fast.

Within 2 seconds of being scooped up, he was silent again, heading back towards sleep. I mumbled something - to myself - about waking me up for nothing, and also started heading back towards sleep. I assume that Sarah did the same.

Then, at 5:55am, Tyler woke up, screaming bloody murder.

I don't like having to admit this, but Sarah and I have grown accustomed to Tyler's cries. Sarah, more so than me. We can differentiate between hungry-cries, diaper-cries, and gassy-cries. My displeasure in admitting that is due to the fact that I used to consider it a bunch of hogwash. I've heard babies cry and scream before, mostly at Wal-Mart, and they've ALL sounded identical to me: annoying. I used to mumble, (again) to myself, "shut that baby up". I know I'm not the only person who's ever had that thought, although I may be one of the very few to admit it. Now that I'm a parent, and have had some first-hand experience, I would like to use this blog to offer a public apology to anyone who has been in the care of a crying baby while in public. Truly, I am sorry.

This new scream, coming in the darkest of the night, stopped our hearts, cold. It was very reassuring that he calmed immediately after being held.

The fact that he was awake, and that he calmed down, steers me away from thinking they were night terrors. However, I could easily believe they were nightMARES. Google seems to agree.

But then it begs the question... What the heck can a 41-day-old baby be having nightmares about? He doesn't know who Frankenstein's monster is (who just so happens to have been the subject of my childhood recurring nightmares). He has no knowledge of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Mike Myers, or Bubba Sawyer (a.k.a. Leatherface ).

Racking my brain, I've come up with two possible sources of this nightmare. The first is "tummy-time". He does not like, at all, being on his belly for more than a few minutes. As a matter of fact, I believe Tyler is going to skip crawling, and go directly to walking. He absolutely LOVES standing up - with me supporting him, of course. When we do this, the expression on his face reads, "zOMG, I don't know what this is, but I want more of it!!!!" I'll have Sarah help me get a picture of it. It's awesome.

My other thought is that he was reliving the experience of his mother nearly dropping him. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BURRRRNNNNNNN!!!!!!

I'm going to pay for that comment later.