Wednesday, October 13, 2010

nightmare

we have not been getting near as much sleep lately around here. sawyer started having nightmares this past weekend. the first night she woke up around 3 am screaming her head off. i went in there to see what was wrong and she said, "charlie is in my bed and he is going to get me. mommy there are doggies in my bed." charlie was our dog until a couple of months ago and sawyer has been afraid of dogs her entire life. i have tried all kids of things to show her they aren't scary and get her used to them, but nothing has worked. so after she told me that i told her everything was fine and tried to put her back in her bed but she was wrapped around me scared. she said, "i want to go to mommy and daddy's bed. i was like, no way. not doing that. i tried laying in her bed with her. i tried sitting in the chair in there with her. nothing worked. i was exhausted. so since eric was out of town, i gave up and took her in bed with me. she has woken up screaming 4 out of 6 nights now. i bought a night light and a light bed buddy. i have tried explaining to her that there is nothing in her bed, her babies will protect her, explaining that she cannot sleep in our bed. but it's not really working and i don't really know what to do. i would let her cry it out but then she wakes mason up. twice it has been at 6 am she has woken up screaming. the first time she woke mason up and they wouldn't go back to sleep. that was a cranky day! the first time i told her that she couldn't sleep in our bed anymore we went in and found her in the chair sleeping. we put her back in her bed, but she was right back in the chair when i got up in the morning. i asked her why she wasn't in her bed and it was the same thing, "there are dogies in my bed and they are going to get me."

Photobucket

a funny story, sunday we were watching football and sawyer said, "mommy, mommy the football players are in timeout." they had called a timeout :)

4 comments:

Alison said...

hey, i am so sorry about this...for her and you! cailyn has never really had nightmares, but something that helped us when she had trouble with being scared was listening to this CD that you might even already have...it's called "Hide 'Em In Your Heart" by Steve Green. There is a song on the Vol. 1 cd about trusting in God when you're afraid. We would sing it every night with her as we left her room. Not that this will get rid of nightmares, but it might be something you could sing in the moment in the middle of the night. Good luck! -alison thompson

Riley Kai said...

We went through a similar thing with Riley after my dad died. I wish I had the magic answer for you, but I don't. I can tell you that it's a phase (an exhausting one at that) and it will pass! We end every night by talking about how God protects us while we sleep. It seemsvover their little heads, but it seemed to comfort Riley! Good luck...praying that He gives Sawyer peace and you all some rest:-)

mau mau said...

our daughter went through the same thing when we moved last year. she kept dreaming there was a woman cutting her back with a knife (i'm suspecting she got the idea from barbie and the three musketeers). it lasted for weeks and i was desperate because most nights my husband's at work too. what eventually worked was insisting night after night that she couldn't come to our bed (i caved in a few times) and eventually i gave her a small pillow sprayed with my perfume. we're finally sleeping at night.

Unknown said...

My sister had a recurring nightmare about a bear and that he was trying to get her. My parents didn't know what to do finally one day they said off-handedly that maybe the bear wanted to play with her, and she stopped having the nightmare. They asked her about it a few weeks later, and she told them that the bear did just want to play with her. Maybe it's worth a shot??? I think she was around 3 or so.