nightmare

Every since Eric has had his surgery, when he wakes up from a nap or in the morning, he screams. I don't know if this is just a coincidence or if he's still a little traumatized from waking up from anesthesia. He has gotten better with the screaming and lately it seems like it's just happening a few hours after he falls asleep for the night and he normally just needs a little comfort and he goes right back to sleep... but not last night.
The baby fell asleep with his bottle so I put him right to bed at 8pm. I was exhausted so I went and laid down and at about 9 he woke up screaming but fell right back to sleep. I fell asleep at 9:30 which is early for me so I was expecting a really good night's sleep. Well he woke up again at 11:30pm. Eric went in to check on him and picked him up for a minute. I went into the room and took him and rocked with him for a little bit (Ok I'm starting not to remember exactly how the whole night happened but this is close enough!) and then I put him back down. He started screaming shortly after I put him down. I am all for letting him scream it out but I get worried because I think the woman who lives next door to us shares a wall with her bedroom and his bedroom so I don't want to keep her up all night. Eric went in and got him and just brought him into our bed. He was happy to do this and when he started to seem tired I brought him into his bed. At this point it was after midnight.
He seemed fine and Eric went to bed and I stayed awake waiting for the baby to fall asleep. After about 20 minutes of silence he started to scream. I waited for a little bit and then I went in there. At this point it was just before 1am. I picked him up and he was ready to play! Oh boy. So I brought him into the living room, trying to let everyone else around here get some sleep. He sat on the floor in the living room and told a lovely story until about 1:15am. Again I tried to put him to bed and he screamed. I picked him up and he still screamed. He looked exhausted but he would not fall asleep. I was desperate. I changed his diaper and gave him some water and then some tylenol because I thought maybe he was hurting somewhere. I then caved and gave him two ounces of formula and he still screamed afterwards. So I sat in the living room rocking with a screaming baby figuring that eventually he just has to crash. 3:00am came around and he was still screaming. Eric woke up and came out and took him from me and just put him to bed. I told him I was afraid something was really wrong with him and I was also afraid that he would continue screaming and keep the neighbor up all night. Eric decided that he was just playing games and the neighbor would have to deal with it for tonight. Thankfully, whether there was something wrong or not, he screamed himself to sleep after about 15 minutes. I didn't get to bed until 3:30am. Thankfully the baby didn't wake up until 9am.
The only thing I'm worried about is that this happens again tonight. If it does I will know that he is just trying to test my patience!