UPDATE UPDATE
The last two nights Nathan has not woke up with nightmares. However, Aubrey was full of jealousy in her heart that her brother got to sleep on a special bed in our room. The last two nights she has shown up around 3 a.m., feigning a nightmare so that she too can sleep on a special bed in our room. She shows up with her pillow and all her bedding and acts shocked when we aren't moved by her fear. Opportunistic little bugger!
Wednesday morning when Nathan woke up I said, "Nathan, you slept so well last night! Did you have good dreams?" He replied (and Greg was there as a witness), "Yeah, I did have a good dream. I dreamt that I got to spend all day at home with Mama."
Be still my beating heart, you are too precious for your own good.
As thrilled as we are about the upcoming arrival of our baby I still couldn't help but lament to Greg, "We are going to be SO tired. For like a year. SO tired. I mean, bone exhausted. Plus, I'm so used to getting an uninterrupted night's sleep now it's going to feel even harder."
Do you hear Murphy's Law laughing at me? Did I actually say out loud how well our children sleep? Rookie move Sara!
The next day Nathan woke up and crawled into bed in the middle of the night. After 15 minutes he was content to go back to bed. Then he did it again the next day. And the next. He would say in the morning that he was having bad dreams. He never seemed terribly upset and always willingly went back to bed.
That is until last night. He joined us 2:30 a.m. I put him back in bed around 3. At 3:30 I heard him crying, "MAMA! MAMA!" I went and picked him up. He ended up back in bed with us for a few minutes while I reassured him. This time though he refused to go back to bed. Hysterical crying and wailing about being scared and all his bad dreams came pouring out. He was clinging to Greg, begging not to go back to bed. We agreed to let him lay with us for a while longer but every time we tried to put him back to bed he started screaming all over again. We finally ended up making him a bed on the floor of our room and letting him sleep there. That finally happened at 5:30 a.m. and our alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. Ouch.
I will say this for last night. Greg and I both believe Nathan was truly scared. He wasn't acting naughty or bratty but out of his mind scared. I am second guessing every movie I've let him see. Our kids aren't allowed to watch t.v. but they do watch movies and certainly have seen things like "Monster's, Inc." a time or two. I think the more Nathan's imagination develops the scarier these images are to him. We are back to Winnie the Pooh.
Any advice on nightmares? This is new territory for us. You know, because in parenting if it's not one thing it's another. Greg had the audacity to say this was prep for the new baby. I kicked him in the shins.
8 comments:
Poor little Nathan (and poor Mom and Dad), I hate hearing that he's that scared, that just is not like him. Can he tell you about his dreams to where you may get some idea of what exactly it is that is scaring him?
Both my boys went through similar stages. Adam would get nightterrors where he would just scream but not really be awake, that was weird. Tyler would come to our room because of bad dreams. I don't have any suggestions on how to get through it but I do think it will pass with time:) Who knows if its the movies or not, I think kids just have awesome imaginations. I think your bed on the floor of your room is a great compromise.
I remember my first nightmare (My mom wouldn't let me even watch the muppets or smurfs for fear they would give me nightmares). Turns out, life and a child's imagination is enough to trigger it. That day, we went to the beach and saw the tidal pools and then went to the local water park. That night, I had a nightmare about being rolled up in my sheets like a burrito by a giant crab and then it pushing me down a huge waterslide kicking and screaming.
Sorry about the little man's bad dreams...and about your lack of sleep! Is it still going on?
Recently, Anna has been waking up once in the middle of the night crying really hard, and I just go in and tell her lay back down and go to sleep, and that's the end of it. I sometimes wonder if that is from a bad dream too. Kids are every-changing, aren't they?
Hopefully you guys get back on track soon. For Sara's sake! :)
My word verification for that last post was "HOTSX" Tee hee. :)
Hahahahaha! That's hilarious about Aubrey.
I wonder if Nathan had been dreaming that someone was taking him from you? Poor guy. Glad he's sleeping better! See you guys SOON!
Poor guy. No advice, just hoping it passes soon. Oooh, and email at ehultgrenn@gmail.com your address so I can get your Christmas card in the mail. It has been in my purse, stamped and ready to go for a week now. :)
Joshua has a lot of anxiety in general so he definitely has bad dreams. We pray every night before he goes to bed that he won't be scared of his dreams and that seems to help. When he does wake up with a bad dream I let him sit at the top of the stairs with me and talk about it for a few minutes, then remind him of what's real and what's not. I wish I could say this always works. Sometimes he just desperately wants me to be with him. Last night I told him I can't get in his bed because it's too small, he offered to break the end off for me:)
Post a Comment