Nightmares and bad dreams.

[shanendoah]

I also wanted a magic wand.
Visualization lasted about 15-20 minutes.

Our magic wand was a goal ladder she made for herself for falling asleep without us in the room, with rewards at certain levels. When she reached the point that we could tuck her in, say goodnight, and leave, she got a brand new, pink, fuzzy blanket.

Before that, she could not fall asleep without someone in the room. Could not. Some nights, she was asleep within 15 minutes, many nights, it took a lot longer. C would often fall asleep in there with her.

We had a plan- sitting on the foot of the bed, moved to sitting in a chair in the room (so much easier because then standing didn't disturb her), moved to sitting in a chair in the hallway, moved to her door open, us doing what we needed to do, moved to her door closed (because doggies).
It took a while. But the two months that took were nothing compared to the close to year prior where she couldn't go to sleep on her own.

[alabamagal]

According to my Mom, I was a very difficult child through the age of 5.  Bad dreams, night terrors, irrational fears.  At 6 it all went away, and I am now a normal (I think!) adult.  Sometimes it is just something you have to grow out of.

I actually had bad dreams past 5.  A lot of times I would get up and go sleep on the floor of my parents room, maybe until I was 10 or so.

As an adult I rarely have dreams that I recall when I wake up, so I must have learned to repress them.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I also have to really, really, REALLY repress the urge to hit people when they tell me to "treasure this.  She won't want you to tuck her in someday." 

[shanendoah]

Wisconsin Beth - I'm with you. I am so looking forward to the day when bedtime is- hey go to bed. Not 20+ minutes of - get in your jammies, did you brush your teeth, now there must be a story (and because you don't really want to go to bed, you want to be the one to read it out loud, even though you hate reading), oh, and now there must be the blanket routine, oh wait, you didn't give hugs, must get out from under the blankets for hugs, now blankets have to be redone. (And this is all assuming we don't head into her room at bedtime to find her bed covered in random stuff, that, for once in her life, she'll actually "want" to put away where it goes.)

[Wisconsin Beth]

I learned last night that the picturing of a water park is no longer a happy place because she's afraid of deep water.   

Scott took the easy route Monday-Wed. nights - he hauled the kids into our bed.  When I got in at 1am on Thursday morning, I hauled Cabe to his bed - he tries to sleep cross-wise on big beds otherwise.  I'd promised to give them kisses and hugs when I got in, which sort of woke them up.  Keira has no memory of me doing of it though.  Although she does remember me tucking her into her own bed. 

And you know you're a parent when you do Goodnight prayers in an airport without thinking twice about it. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

The last few nights haven't been bad.  Admittedly I fell asleep in her bed last night but the previous nights had either DH or I leaving before she was asleep and she stayed in her bed. 

[ArchietheDragon]

Our three year old has been coming in our bed every night for the last couple of nights. Says shes afraid of the witch on her wall. The Adventure Time she is watching probably isn't helping.

[Wisconsin Beth]

AT least you know what the fear is. 

I really thought last night wasn't going to be good - Cabe was wandering around pretending to be a mummy and she was kinda freaking out when we were at my Mom's.  I assumed that would come back at bedtime.  But then again, I fell asleep in her bed so maybe it would have if I wasn't there.  Who knows? 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I fell asleep in her bed again damnit.  This time I woke up around 820 though.  And she was marginally awake when I left around 835. 

We're starting to leave her door partially open.  I'm not sure it's a good idea but it seems to make her feel better about staying in her bed.  So I'm rolling with it.  Or trying to. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

We used to read at bedtime, we've gotten out of the habit.  Lately, it's crazy 8s or Kipper the Dog episodes on the Kindle (which is infinitely better than Barbie or the made up games we've doing.)  And running though her spelling words for the week.  She gets upset if we miss a night.  How the hell did I get a conscientious student for a kid?  

[shanendoah]

Unless there's an active reason for having the door closed, I see nothing wrong with her sleeping with her door open. I did all through my childhood,so the cats could come and go from the bedrooms as they saw fit. Which I find a little funny because one of the main reasons we want Pop Tart's door closed is so that the dogs can't come and go as they see fit, especially now that she has rats and Larry's a Terrier.
She does still sleep with a light on, and I'm just not going to fight that.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Yeah, I buy the lowest wattage bulbs I can find for their lamps (not the overhead light but the little desk like lamps) and we leave those on all night.  And there's at least 1 other night light in K's room.  I think C is down to 3.  I will NOT leave the overhead lights on.

She slept with a door closed tight the 1st 5 years.  I don't get why it helps now to have it open but whatever.  The reasons for keeping it closed when they were babies are not valid anymore. 

[Ryan]

Oct 31, 2014 8:46:56 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

Well, she saw parts of Ghost Hunters on tv on Wed. night but didn't seem upset by it.  We keep a bedside lamp with a 25W bulb on at night and she doesn't like to sleep without her sound machine on (it's rain or a waterfall or something usually.) 

She IS scared by the Curious George Halloween episode but once it's over she's usually ok.  She just snuggles up when it's on. 

I had a bad dream as a kid that haunted me too.  Couldn't sleep in a room with a tv in it for YEARS. 

She's scared of no noggin?!?! Did you tell her that no noggin was just jumpy the squirrel? Ha. My kids watched that constantly. I love curious George

[Wisconsin Beth]

Yep, she knows that.  She's still scared of no noggin anyway.  Her younger brother loves that episode.  Of course. 

[taz157]

DD hasn't had the nightmares/bad dreams (yet) as she's only 3, but her overhead light has been left on for a few months. It's on a dimmer switch so I try to get it turned down pretty low. She also has a projection/music machine that plays too. I used to have the machine go off after 30-60 minutes, but she started waking up in the middle of night wanting it back on. So far, she's been pretty good with the machine.

Good luck!

[Wisconsin Beth]

Keira's been really fearful the last few days.  She's never been found of going into her bedroom with the light off but last night she wanted me to walk with her into the bathroom and turn the light on.  Switch is next to door, door is 3 feet or so down a hallway. 

At bedtime she said while I was gone, she's watched Oggie and the Cockroaches (really crappy animated thing involving 2 cats and 3 cockroaches, along the lines of Tom and Jerry/Bugs Bunny but less funny, less well drawn and less of a plotline) on the Kindle while DH was putting Cabe to bed and it had mummies in it.  So she was asking about mummies and that's what triggered this round.     I started to explain that mummies are not real (she made a joke about mommies are real though) and then went, wait, mummies ARE real.  We've seen them in the museum.  So I backtracked.  And boy did she stiffen when I did.  I did tell her that mummies don't walk around or anything.  I didn't tell her they're dead bodies either.  I didn't want to make bedtime worse. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

We established last night that Keira is afraid someone will come in via her windows.  I made sure they were locked.  I flipped the little burglar bar latch thing. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I did not get a lot of sleep over the weekend and Monday night.  Tuesday was the new Dispatch system rollout at work and I was instructed to be in at 6am (I was 2nd wave) and the kids tagteamed me Monday night so I was walking dead.  I did get out of work on time (last time we tried to roll out a new Dispatch system, it was an epic failure that took a week to get back to the old system so we were not holding our breath on this one) so I went home and cleaned.  Bedtime came for the kids and I had Caleb.  I was asleep around 845pm last night. 

Keira came out around 840 saying she was scared.  I told her to see Daddy as it was his night with her.  She didn't want Daddy.  I told her she must not be very scared then.  Then she stomped back to her room I think.  I heard the footstomps down the hall and a couple of door close loudish but I'm not actually sure if she went to him or not.  I was so tired.  I'm not sure if this counts as a fail or a success or what.  I don't think she came out again but I was so tired I didn't notice anything until Cabe came out around 11pmish.  I put him back in his bed and then fell asleep there.  He's also talking about being scared.  I think I'm going to find Keira's old light up snuggle bug thing and see if that helps any, with either one of them. 

I did get about 8-8.5 hours of sleep and I feel much better today.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Joy.  Now Cabe is starting with the "i'm scared" thing.   

[Wisconsin Beth]

Ok, the melatonin isn't really helping with keeping Cabe asleep all night.  I don't think it did much with Keira either.  What I need/want is something that will KEEP them asleep for 8+ hours. 

[justme]

Have you tried white noise machines? After a while it almost becomes Pavlovian. If I hear white noise too long I often wake up to find I passed out. There's different sound options you can try until you find one each kids likes.

[taz157]

I'm sorry Cabe isn't sleeping well. I'll tag kgb18, maybe she still lurks as I believe she gave Avery melatonin. She may have some tips. I really wish I had some.

We use this for DD: www.amazon.com/Munchkin-Nursery-Projector-Sound-System/dp/B006SFUEF2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419872928&sr=8-1&keywords=munchkin+projector+and+sound+machine It has several different sounds, including white noise. We tend to keep it on overnight for DD, but I may be able to stop that now. Just turn it off when I check on DD before I go to bed. When she falls asleep in our room with DH and I move her back to her room before I go to bed, I haven't been putting the machine on and as far as I know, she stays asleep.

I hope you can find something that works.

[Wisconsin Beth]

WE have sound machines.  We have night lights.  We've tried doors open and doors closed. 

Keira, once she's down, usually stays asleep until morning.  She's just hell to get down due to her fears. 
Cabe, goes down in 10 minutes usually, but is up multiple times in the night.  Which tends to end with him crawling in with either DH or me. 

It's like Jack Sprat and his wife. 

[The Captain]

Wisconsin Beth - I wish I had something more for you than a .  Sleep deprivation is no fun for the parents or children.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Thanks.  I appreciate the hugs. 

And while I'm bitching here, I do want to recognize that DH did try to have me sleep in over the weekend.  The whole house is passing a cough and cold around.  Just to make things more fun....

[zibazinski]

DS got a magic shell from his daycare teacher that he passed on to DD in turn. It protected whoevers bed it was under.

[zibazinski]

You guys are saints.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I dropped about $600 on new mattress sets for the kids yesterday.  They were due for replacment (mostly) anyway now that the kids are pretty much done having accidents in their beds.  I have no expectations that this will help but at least it can't hurt, right?  We got memory foam for them.  Keira's upset because she's getting another twin and not a "big bed" like mommy and daddy have.  snort. 

They want to swap out frames too.  So Mom's bringing the headboard Dad painted white for Keira (like 3 years ago) over.  I'll put that on Keira's bed for now.  She's asked about painting it purple.  I'm stalling her until Summer.  I'm ok with it because this isn't "good" furniture, it's not crap but it's not going to be the stuff that goes on every move with them as adults either.  It's basically good enough to get them to adulthood. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

Beds and frames are in place.  Keira and DH were up until after 9pm, I heard them talking.  She apparently crashed fast once they started snuggling.  Cabe was overtired and fought going to sleep but still was out just after 8pm.  He came out at 2am so as expected not even a new mattress and different frame was enough to keep him in.  But he was 'later" than usual in coming out so maybe that's progress? 

I stupidly crawled in with him until 5am.  I know better.  I really do.  But 2am is a lousy time to have to remember 'best parenting practices' it really is. 

[taz157]

Wisconsin Beth - After a week with the new beds and mattresses, I hope the kids are sleeping through the night better.