Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray,
And two to guide me through the day.
Nightmares plague our house. My beautiful, loving, highly imaginative daughter rarely has a good night's sleep. We kept thinking it was a phase she'd outgrow. She hasn't. We thought she was crying at night because she had to go to the bathroom. Sometimes correct, sometimes not. We would get sad, frustrated, impatient, and even annoyed that she would cry and cry but not tell us what was wrong. In the mornings, she wouldn't remember, so she couldn't tell us. As she's gotten older, she's been able to tell us what's wrong the next day (though most times at night, she's too upset and sleepy to talk. She just wants to be held). Sometimes it's a mean bear. Sometimes it's a dragon. This week, it's a scary man in her room- in her bed. What can I say? That would scare the crap out of me too. We've tried everything. This dinosaur she received for Christmas 2 years ago (wow, she looks young) roars and temporarily, kept the bad dreams away when it slept in bed with her. It no longer works. She gave him to Adam.
We have a book of Blue's Clues about Blue having a bad dream. We would read that every night and discuss it over and over and over. That worked occasionally in conjunction with the dinosaur. It hasn't worked in quite a while. We made a special dream catcher together to catch all the bad dreams and keep them away and it only lets the good dreams sprinkle down on her head. That worked for a few days.
At the end of September, we started a reward chart to see if some old fashioned bribery would help us sleep through the night. It worked for about 5 prizes, but the months of December and January were almost complete failures and February is looking pretty bleak.
So now we're on to a poem that's in one of Mary's bedtime books. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I thought I would make it the last thing I read before bed tonight, so it would be fresh in her mind. I left the book by her nightstand so she could look at the picture of the little girl sleeping in bed with a smile on her face and 4 pretty angels watching over her. I then sat on her bed with her while she hurled question after question at me: "Where are the angels? I have angels? How'd they get in? Why can't I see them? Are they pretend or real? If they're real, how come I can't see them? Are they pretend imaginary or real imaginary? Can you open the window in the bathroom so they can come in? Can I give you one so you'll have good dreams? Are they in the room right now? Are you sure they're real? They'll tell my bad man to go away? Can she sleep under my covers to stay warm? When do they sleep?...." As you can see, halfway through this one sided questioning, I began to doubt my idea and am wondering if I did more harm than good. This is when it would have been nice to have Doug as a sounding board. Maybe she's too young for angels. Maybe her imagination is way to vivid at this time in her life. All I know is I desperately want her (and me) to have a good night's sleep. There are a few more ideas I've yet to try. I have a feeling, we'll get to them eventually. Good night.
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