Friday, December 3, 2010

Nightmares

How do you deal with nightmares? Noah has been having nightmares lately and I have no idea what to do. Last night at 1:45 am Noah ran screaming into his door (ouch!). I jumped out of bed and ran into his room as fast as I could to quiet him down so he wouldn't wake up Maren. (the door to Noah's room is in Maren's room).

He was screaming because I had taken two things off of his bed. (I hadn't of course) He continued to kick and scream as I held him. I told him it wasn't real. That it was just a nightmare. I ran to get him a drink of water and finally I had to turn on the lights and read him a story to get him to quiet down. I put him back in bed and was repeating over and over "I don't want the nightmare to come back. I don't want the nightmare to come in my room."

I told him to think about things that make him happy or to sing a happy song. I could tell he was still scared and upset when I left.

(Fortunately Maren never woke up!)

I don't know what else to do. I know he will have more. I had them a lot as a kid. I often begged my mom to let me sleep in her room. What do you do to help your kid get over nightmares??

3 comments:

Oregon Millburns said...

Aww, poor Noah!

Kate said...

I usually give Sal one of her stuffed animals to "keep her company" when she wants to join me in my bed.

Good luck!

Rosie said...

oh man, that sounds so hard. I used to get nightmares a lot as a kid and my mom always told me to sing "a child's prayer" and let me sleep on a blanket on the floor at the foot of her bed.