And then we Cheers: Nightwakings the great question mark of our time

It happened two nights ago, Josh and I were in the basement talking to his mom on the phone, Dexter was cozy in his bed and had been for about two hours already when all of a sudden we hear the noise that strikes fear in our hearts and makes us freeze. Eyes wide, Josh and I stare at each other and basically exchange a WTF? look as the wailing from above continues. Because seriously, W.T.F.? Dexter has been a good sleeper for the majority of his life (as I type this, I can hear Josh saying don't type that, you're jinxing us and I can also hear some of our other parent friends roll their eyes and mutter jerks under their breath and in the way, way distant background I can hear a faint whisper of you're in for it with your next one, little girl ;) ), so it is always so startling when he wakes up and screams. This is a cry it out house so we employ our little 10 minute method here and eventually I end up changing him and he goes back to sleep. However, he ends up waking up a few hours later and screams. Not long but long enough to make both of us cringe and brace ourselves for impact. Thankfully, the fallout was minimal.

Last night was much of the same plus three. We ended up giving him Tylenol because we thought maybe he's getting teeth. He only has four so it's about time he gets to growing some more, right? Question mark, question mark, question mark. That is my main problem with sudden "nightwakings" in toddlers. It's all guesswork. Perhaps he's getting teeth, question mark. Or is it a nightmare, question mark. Maybe he's suffering from separation anxiety, question mark. Overtiredness, question mark. Coming down with something, question mark!

I know that I've voiced my frustration about this before but honestly, it's kind of the worst feeling in the world not knowing how to fix things for your kid. I hate fumbling around for an answer only to come up with more questions. Period.