Night Terror

No, it's not that any of the children have had night terrors. Rather, Jayna has become a night terror to the rest of the family.

As most of our family and friends would know, Jayna has been a difficult child to raise since she was born. Enough said about how much grief she causes during the day, she has always been very disruptive at night if she fails to fall asleep right after being put to bed.

In the past, Joash was able to quietly play by himself till he falls asleep without waking a light-sleeping Jayna as a baby. However, Jayna would refuse to let everyone sleep before she does by asking for the most ridiculous things. And the method of asking? Screaming. She'll scream that she wants to go to the toilet when she doesn't need to. She'll scream about wanting to have medicine applied onto imaginary wounds. She'll scream wanting to sleep with her watch, her toy, her ring, her rubberband, a piece of paper etc. or even something we don't even understand. 

We have tried to meet all her unreasonable requests, patiently explained to her what she's doing to the rest of the family, assured her of our love and the love of God, and when nothing else worked, spanked her for being so inconsiderate to everyone else and outright disobedience. In fact, even Joash tries to help her sleep too by patting her, telling her that Jesus is with her and even keeps her company at her bed on several occasions. It's not that she's not tired enough to sleep because when we finally do spank her, she falls asleep almost immediately after that as it's the only thing the she's afraid of.

Recently, it has become even worse. She'd wait till everyone is sound asleep before she pulls her screaming stunt and rudely waking the other 2 children, both absolutely frightened by the horrible din. Poor baby Jaide would cry for hours before she could go back to sleep. Even Joash got so shocked one of the times that he couldn't stop crying too and behaved as if he just woke up from a night terror. It took both Joshua and I to calm him down. After all the adrenaline rush trying to put everyone back to bed, I would find it hard to get back to sleep myself. Despite being utterly exhausted, I would still be awake in the wee hours of the morning, grieving over my middle daughter's lack of teachability and love for others. Tonight is one of such nights.

I pray that Jayna would one day appreciate the fact that she's still loved by the rest of the family despite the suffering she has put us through. Joash continues to dote on her as the loving brother that he is and Jaide, being such a cheerful baby, bears no grudge against her selfish older sister who often demands so much attention from their mother that her basic needs are sometimes left unmet for a long time.

In the meantime, I need God to daily fill me with new love and new mercies in order to handle the wearing down of my heart, soul and body by my little terror.