Night Terrors, say Where?

These past two weeks have been a bit tough. The night wakings are continuing and it's no longer always dealing with monsters. L has begun "waking" up around 2-3 hours after he goes to sleep. I say "waking" because he's having full-blown night terrors where he screams, kicks, punches, flails his arms, throws himself violently, cries, and talks, all in alternating order. If we try to talk to him, especially me, he gets worse. Sometimes, daddy can talk to him and he'll calm down, only to get worked up again within minutes. We thought it had to do with fears, the monsters he keeps talking about. Maybe. But the pediatrician confirmed today that 1) he has no health reasons for the night wakings and 2) there's not much that can be done except ride this out. Fun. She did suggest waking him up about an hour after he falls asleep in order to disrupt the REM cycle. Apparently, that has something to do with night terrors (or night terrors happen during that part). I don't remember. She told me he has a very active imagination and this could be his way of processing the day's events. Great. That's a good thing, I'm told, but it's hard to believe on interrupted sleep.

Reading online - because of course, we have to read online to see all the essays, articles, and information that's out there in cyberspace - I found out that there could be a few causes. 1) overly tired 2) developmental milestones 3) changes in routine. We haven't had a change in routine except when we went to Satellite Beach/Disney during Spring Break, so maybe that triggered this whole thing. His teacher told me this morning that he is going through all these developmental milestones lately, so that could be a factor, too. But seriously, waking up every hour between the hours of 10/11 PM and 1/2 AM really, really put a damper on our consideration for a second child.

Now here's a funny story, not quite related to the night terrors. Mr. Pukas likes to say "where" - a lot. He doesn't ask why, that question hasn't materialized yet. Instead, it's "where."

Pukas - get your shoes.
Where?
Pukas - let's go to school.
Where?
Pukas - it's dinner time.
Where?
Pukas - look at the bus?
Where?
Over there.
Where?

Ah fun times. I don't know if I prefer this to "why?" Time will tell, I guess.