The Great Phantom Baby Cry

Margot Sleeping Back in February

Have you ever fallen asleep and awoke to the cry of your baby/kid and when you get up to check on them, their dead asleep. Say hello to the “Phantom Baby Cry”. Yes, there is a term for that. This has been happening a lot lately and it’s not just the twins cry’s waking me up from a dead sleep. I am also hearing Paley calling out for me. It’s a crazy and eerie feeling when it happens. 

You awake to the noise or cry and your adrenaline kicks in and this is followed by the panic of searching. With 3 kids, searching can take a little longer. Once you have realized it was none of the 3. Then comes the idiot/paranoia phase. Racking your brain for several minutes till you realize that you were asleep when you heard the noise. Doh! or as Paley would say “Hello Megan!”.

There you have the phantom baby cry. What’s really interesting is that this only occurred a few times when Paley was a baby. After the twins were born, it happens to me at least once a week. Most nights I just fall back to sleep because I remember I had just woken up from sleeping. Other nights I am so out of it, that it takes me 5-10 minutes to compute the situation. So if you are suffering from this, I feel your pain or lack of sleep. The worse part of Phantom Baby Cry, it takes you forever to go back to bed thanks to that adrenaline rush.