I think Simon had his first nightmare last night. We put him down at 8:00 or so, and at 8:30, just when I’d expect him to be moving from light to deeper sleep, he awoke shrieking. There were no little muffled cries or whimpers that escalated; he began full on.
I rushed upstairs, half-way expecting to find him on the floor or caught in the crib rails. Instead he was sitting up in bed, holding onto his dirty dog and pacifier and sobbing inconsolably. I can’t explain why, but he looked scared to me.
It took a few minutes for him to calm down in my arms, but he did eventually relax. Then I laid him on our bed with the lights off except for what came in from the hallway, laid down next to him, and sang a few songs. He fell asleep on his back. I couldn’t really watch him since the lights were out, so I put my head on his chest and listened to his heart beat–a sound I hadn’t heard since my last pre-natal checkup in October 2006.
Then, just as I went to move him back into his crib, something funny happened. He awoke part-way. He rolled over to his side, lifted an arm, pointed up into the air and said “light”, then pushed up on his arms to raise his whole chest. At this point, he spun his pacifier in his mouth and I was convinced he was totally awake, only to be confused by his total limpness once I picked him up.
He slept uneventfully for the rest of the night, but I’m left today wondering what the heck is going on in that crib at night!