Shrieks in the night

Shortly after I put the girls to bed, I heard the most awful scream from Shelby. It was the kind of scream that made me feel like I should have been calling 911 while running to her. I don't think I've ever heard her scream quite that terribly.

Heart pounding, I ran to where the scream came from, the bathroom. She had her head over the toilet and I half-expected to see blood in the toilet or something similar to warrant that scream. She said she REALLY felt like she had to throw-up. She was crying. And trembling. I was actually relieved, and not just because she didn't throw-up. She insisted on staying in the bathroom, so I let her play her gameboy in there for about fifteen minutes to see if her tummy would calm down. After the fifteen minutes it took some further negotiating to get her back to bed, though with a trash can nearby, just in case.

So I didn't sleep well AT ALL. I kept having dreams that she was screaming again, so I'd wake up to nothing. Until it really happened. By five-something in the morning, I had gotten up so many times during the night that I had finally learned to tolerate/ignore the "dream". It took Darby, who had been awakened this time by the ruckus, to wake me up. Again Shelby was screaming with her head over the toilet. Again she did not throw-up. Again I had to coax her back to bed, though we'd be getting up in a couple hours. I definitely needed the sleep. And I could use more.