Sleep After Surgery

Hi R.,

I hope that your son is ok and feeling a lot better now. My suggestion is that you take him back to the doctor and make sure that he isn't in any pain and see what the doctor says about the night terrors-- maybe they know some tricks to help him through this tough time. As far as comforting him, I would make a tape recording of you singing to him so he can listen to it throughout the night. You could also buy him a special teddy bear or soft blanket to hold. If you sleep with it for a few nights it will have your smell which is always comforting for babies and toddlers. Good luck and I hope everything is ok.

Molly

I assume he's okay during the day so you know there is no physical repercussion from the surgery. Yeah, if he's going through a scared period, due to the surgery or otherwise, then you do need to lose sleep and soothe him for a while. Since you can tell from the cry what his issue is you will know when it's time to get hard core again.

I always used to croon to them, lie down next to them and just sort of keep whispering/low voice over and over -- "shh, it's okay, everything's okay, you're fine, my precious baby, everything's okay, mommy loves you so much, my angel..." and on and so forth, anything I could think of saying, for a while, and not only were they soothed by it but I liked doing it, I got to tell them over and over how great they were and how much I loved them.

have you tried playing soft baby music or just rocking him
I also know that in some cases the medication that they use to knock you out can cuase bad dreams. when my daughter had sugery she had bad dreams for about 3 m all we did was lay with her in bed and tell her she is safe now just like that whisper it in his ear and tell him mommy is here your safe rubb his back but try to not hlod him with my daughter i would hold her and she never let go she ended up sleeping with me agine my mom showed me how hope it works i just know that i was at wits end and i felt bad and sad for her

Could he still be in pain from the surgery? Maybe he is uncomfortable, which is making it harder to fall back to sleep when he wakes up. It also could be unrelated. He may be getting his molars (check his mouth) or something else that is causing him pain. It also could be just a bad case of separation anxiety brought on by the trama of the surgery. If he is scared, try to figure out what it is he is scared of, which is hard with a child that age, but he may be able to point to something or if he talks well, may even be able to tell you what he is scared of. If it is bad dreams, other than keeping bedtime stress free and early (over tired sometimes equals more bad dreams) there isn't much you can do. Children have very vivid dreams at that age, so if he is waking up truly frightened, then comforting him is about all you can do. Are there reminders of the surgery around? Maybe something is triggering him to think about these things before bed, and therefore dreaming about them. I would give it a little more time to see if the night waking stops. There is also the chance that he has just gotten used to having your presence in the middle of the night, and now it is a habit that needs to be broken. It only takes a few nights to create a bad habit like that. Our 22 month old daughter was doing that after a really bad illness, so bad that I ended up taking her back to the dr. thinking she had an ear infection. Turns out she was perfectly healthy. The doctor actually told me it would be ok to give her benedryl for 3 nights in a row to help her make it through the night and break the cycle. It worked perfectly, and after 3 nights, no more benedryl and she was back to sleeping through. I don't know if this information will help, but hopefully it will be of some use to you. Only you know your child and you have to listen to your gut that the cry is saying something else is wrong. If it persists though, and nothing seems to be working, I would go back to the doctor and have him checked out to make sure nothing else is wrong with him. Good luck.