08 Aug
Bad Dreams
There is nothing in the world more chilling that being woken at 11:45 by the shrill screams of your almost 3 year old (see what I did there? I’m calling him “almost 3″ so when he turns 3 the chances of crying myself into a puddle are decreased). I ran to Jack’s room to find him sitting on his bed sobbing. I laid with him and after 30+ minutes of him tossing an turning and moaning and pretty much being unsettled, he started crying again.
This is behavior that is out of character for Jack. I asked if he was sick or if anything hurt. He said no. I finally got him calmed down enough for him to ask for some water. He refused to let me leave so I carried him down the hall and got a glass of water. I tried taking him back to bed and laying with him again. He started screaming again. He wanted to sleep in my bed. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to convince him that he would be fine but to no avail. I sighed and carried him into my room and laid him down on my side of the bed. Jack has literally never slept in our bed, so I wasn’t thrilled about starting now. In the 20 or so steps to my room, I imagined Jack sleeping in our bed until he was 12. I imagined being kicked and being on the receiving end of head butts.
As soon as I laid him down, my husband woke up. He promptly convinced Jack to go back to his room where the two of them spent the remainder of the night. I didn’t hear a single noise the rest of the night.
This morning I asked Jack why he was up last night. He replied with his standard “Because I was.” After a little more prodding, Jack confessed that he was scared. He was scared of the cars that were in his room and right outside his window. I can only assume that he had a bad dream. We’ve had an incident similar to this here or there, but Jack has never been able to articulate what was wrong. And while I hate that my little guy had a bad dream an was scared by it, the whole is just one more reminder of how much Jack is growing up.
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Maggie has been having dreams lately too. One night it was ‘there were circles on my wall and I was trying to get away from them’ ?? She rarely actually wakes up, just kind of whimpers in her sleep. It’s the saddest cutest thing ever.
She also fell out of bed the other night. No idea if that was dream-related or not. But the poor kid. heh
My 3yo (sorry, it’s still not easy) I think has bad dreams every night. Bridget, like Maggie, rarely wakes up fully, but she definitely needs me to go in and tell her, “it’s okay.” and then it’s over. She doesn’t settle untilshe gears my voice, though. Weird.
My good friend in Cleveland, when her little girl was three had night terrors- screaming, and thrashing, and looking straight at you, but she wasn’t actually awake at all. I hope we don’t go there- that would probably scare me!
I’ve heard the smarter the kid, the earlier they’ll dream. Learning things and imagination collide and they end up being scarey for the kiddo… So, further proof you’ve got a smarty!