Child wont sleep after op

Melion

I posted here a while back regarding Caoimhe having 2 dislocated hips. She had them manipulated back into place on Wednesday morning and is now in a Spica cast. Everything is going well during the day, she is coping very well, much better than me.

The only problem we are having is she just cant sleep, she will nod off for a while and something will startle her and wake her up, she absolutely screams the house down. She has just settled after crying for the last half hour, she is shouting for me and her mother even though we are both right in front of her. She isnt in pain, at least its not noticeable. Its more like she is afraid of something, has anyone had this and could shed some light on it?

Its awful seeing her like this at night when she is coping so well during the day.

metrovelvet

Are you sure its not pain?

Could it have been something about the operation that has her still scared? My son was quite scared for a while after his surgeries [he was very small -toddler] and needed a lot of reassurance.

babygirlz

I'd say its pain too, is she on medication?

lolli

It'll take time for to adjust to the situation. At night time we all twist and turn until we can get comfortable. She cant do that anymore, she has no option but to sleep on her back.

Saoirse was restless when she first went into a Spica too. I proped her up with pillows but it didnt work. I have a bean bag in her cot and she sleeps in that. She still does because she is in a brace at night town. I found that the bean bag takes the whole new shape to her body and it supports the cast so they are more comfortable. I know its awkward pulling bean bags around and all but we had to take it out during the day and put it back into the cot at night time.

Also for the first few days she might be a little bit sore so I gave Saoirse some calpol & nurofen. She will get used to it in a few days.

I do think that putting the bean bag into the cot will help a lot. Saoirse was like that too but once we put the bean bag into the cot we never looked back.

Melion

She is getting calpol and nurofen to help with her pain. Its hard to describe but its not a painful cry if you know what i mean. She is absolutely perfect all day, no crying or anything so thats why i doubt its pain. Ive been googling all night, came up with "confusional arousal" and "Night Terrors", everything described in both of them is exactly what she is doing. Luckily enough, it seems common which is a good thing i suppose.

The beanbag we got for Caoimhe is way too big for her cot, its the size of a big armchair so it would never fit in there.

_Whimsical_

The poor little thing!

It's possible that she's a bit traumatised by all that's gone on without realising it fully consciously. My cousins baby had a small procedure last year and afterwards he was terrified of being put in his cot when he came home.He was fine all day but come bed time or nap time he was hysterical. I suppose he started to associate the cot with having someone do something unexpected/painful to him. With some time and reassurance he got over it.


It might also be a side effect of medication. Often medication can effect sleep and give you that "falling" sensation just as you're about to drop off or they can cause nightmares and make some people a bit more "trippy" and easily upset. When I was small my asthma medication used to give me near hallucinations at night because of one of the additives in it. I used to be still dreaming even after I was awake on it. It was a really unpleasant feeling but I couldn't quite explain it. If this behaviour is unusual for her it might well be something like that.

It's probably been a big week for her even if she hasn't fully consciously registered it so you could probably expect her to be somewhat out of sorts. I hope she gets over it soon.

lolli

Hope shes doing better now Melion