Nightmares

Sophie came into our bed in the early hours of the morning and lunged on me for a big cuddle. She didn't say a word (very unusual) so I thought she must just be feeling a bit cold and wanted to come in for a cuddle. After about 20 minutes she still hadn't said a word so I thought she's either on her maiden sleep walking voyage or she has fallen straight back to sleep in my bed. As sweet as it was having her in for a cuddle, I am not a huge fan of having the kids sleep in our bed...they are so wriggly! After about another 10 minutes, I whispered to her "Alright sweety, time to go back to your bed". All the sudden, she was wide awake and I could tell she had been the whole time because her voice was as clear as it is in the middle of the day. She said "I don't want to go back to my bed, it's scary in there". Oh no I thought to myself; poor little thing has been feeling scared for the last half hour, so much so that she didn't say a word! "Why are you scared, darling?" I asked her and then she went on to tell me she had had a nightmare. This morning I got a bit more detail from her as to what it was about and it amazes me that this goes on in the mind of a four year old...

This is how Sophie told me about her dream: "The lady who hits everybody and everything was in a silver car. I was wearing my brand new high heels and got stuck on the drain. Then the lady was hitting me and the wolves came. They were chasing me. Then Tammy from my Kindy, the nice Miss Tammy came and took me inside to save me from the wolves".

Unbelievable that this is going on in her subconscious! I have no idea who this mean lady is who hits everyone and everything but I am intrigued by her reference to a silver car, especially because none of us have a silver car. Also remarkable that she is dreaming about brand new high heels...God help me in the teenage years!

A while ago, Sophie was having a reoccurring nightmare about my dad, her Poppy. She kept dreaming that "the Doctors put Poppy on fire but they couldn't save him". Further discussion revealed that she was seeing them put paddles (presumably defibrillation pads) onto Poppy's chest. This is concerning because my Dad does have heart problems and has had a stroke so chances are high that his heart will be his undoing and a situation may arise where he does need to be defibrillated. What's even more scary is that Sophie doesn't know about any of that sort of stuff! I just hope she is not seeing the future in her dreams!!!!

As a result of this reoccurring dream, she was scared to go to sleep so we made a dream catcher that now hangs above her bed. I am not sure if I believe that they do anything but even if it is the placebo affect, it seems to help Sophie. I also started making "dream dates" with her and before she would go to sleep, we would arrange to both dream about a lovely place, like the beach, and dream that we were going there for a picnic and a play. So as I tucked her in I would say "I'll see you in our dreams tonight". Both of these things seemed to help a lot and last nights dream is the first bad dream she has had in a long time. Again, I am just baffled as to where these thoughts and images come from for a four year old!

Has anyone else gone through the nightmare stage and have some tips to share?? xox