A Nightmare on OUR Street

It all started one night with the pitter patter of feet across the hallway and then the heart wrenching words “Moooommmyyyy, I had a bad dream.”  The first time it happens you feel awful for your child – you rock them, hold them do whatever you can to make them feel safe and get them back to sleep.  However, when it happens multiple times a night for weeks on end, my empathy (and patience) starts to run a bit thin.   A has always talked in his sleep, but these nightmares are a new occurrence.  So I of course ran off to read whatever I could about toddler nightmares, Turns out that it’s normal for kids to start having them around 3 years old.  Yup, that’s my kid - the punctual one.

They started out of the blue and then got worse after A got bit by a tick 2 weeks ago.  He started to freak out that the “bugs were going to get him.” My fix:  a special magic potion we sprayed each night around his bed that creates a force field no bug could get through (aka a spray bottle with water and a label made on photoshop).  Well, that took care of 1 waking….

Next up my sleeve: my spur of the moment dream catcher.  I took a shell necklace I had laying around, tied it to the lower part of his bedpost and told him that the magic necklace will take away all his bad dreams.  Ok…that took away another waking.

So we’re down to 1x a night and I’m out of crafty ideas.  Sometimes I wonder if he’s really had a bad dream or just wants more snuggle time with us, but I can’t ever make him think I don’t believe him.  So I try my hardest (in my sleepiness) to treat each time seriously, comfort him best I can and bring him back to bed.  And until this phase comes to an end (hopefully soon) I will simply be buying more coffee and concealer for the baggies under my eyes.