The first one was probably six weeks ago. We were all asleep and I heard her blood curdling scream over the monitor. I ran up to her room as fast as I could and as soon as I opened the door she said "Did you see it?" She was pointing to her toy box. At first I thought there really was something in her room and I kind of jumped. Then she said "A bear tried to get me!" I knew then that obviously there wasn't a bear in her room. A couple seconds later she said "A mouse tried to get me!" I don't think she really knew what she thought she saw, but she was scared. Big time. She kept asking me if I saw it. I assured her that there was nothing in her room, and I let her sleep the rest of the night in our bed. She went back to sleep with no problems and was fine the rest of the night.
The second was a couple days before her birthday when she had a pretty high fever. I let her sleep with us because she didn't feel good, and in the middle of the night she woke up screaming telling us to "get it out of the bed!" She kept shaking her hands and pulling at them and was convinced there was something in the bed. She was hysterical for a good five minutes, even after we assured her there was nothing in the bed. She kept saying weird things and at one point she said "and Daddy has-has-has laffy taffy!" She obviously had no clue what she was talking about and her thoughts and words were getting mixed up. At first I thought maybe her fever got crazy high and she was hallucinating. I didn't know what to do. She was scaring me. She finally calmed down and eventually went back to sleep.
At that point, I didn't give it much thought since they were a few weeks apart and seemed unrelated. But now since she has been at my mom's, she has had two of these crazy nightmares. The way my mom described them, they were just like the two stories above. The first time she was asking if my mom saw something, and the second (two nights later) she was pulling at her hands and shaking them and saying to get it away from her.
This bothers me. My poor little girl. I don't want her to get to the point that she is afraid to go to sleep. She used to have night terrors when she was a baby, and I thought maybe she was having them again, but I did some research today and these sound more like nightmares than night terrors. I don't really know what is triggering them. Maybe the two she had at my mom's are just because she is in a different environment? I don't know.
Have any of you experienced this with your children? I guess I'm just trying to figure out if this is "normal" for a three year old. If you have had children that have had these recurring nightmares like this, what did you do to help? Did you figure out what was triggering them? I'd love to hear your stories.
7 comments:
First off, I think I remember that at one time you were undergoing testing for allergies for Rylie. Is that right? If so, does she take any kind of medicine or antihistamine? The reason I ask is that many years ago I was taking Medi-Flu for a bad case of the flu. I would wake up in the middle of the night talking out of my head. I would have nightmares of dogs attacking me and even woke up and sat up in the bed barking back at them. (You can laugh at my barking) But it was so scary. I would be shaking from limb to limb and felt like they were really after me. Other times I would sit up and start talking about the "blue stuff" in my kitchen. My husband through the pills out and it went away. I would have hallucinations at night and nighmares and wake up shaking in a cold sweat. I checked online and found that one of the side effects of it was Severe Hallucinations. It is possible, if she is on any medication (even simple cold medicine) that her system reacts in this way. I have to be extremely careful with what I take or I have these nightmares and hallucinations. I can't even take Tylenol cold or sinus products because they have the same effect. If she's not on any medicine or not take any cold/sinus/allergy medicine, I dont' know what else it would be. But I thought I'd let you know about my reactions with medicine just in case. It would be worth checking into.
Hey LeeAnn! Bee might be on to something...although, I'm inclined to think that it might just be the onset of a good 'ole healthy imagination. Around 3 or 3 1/2 kids often start experiencing nightmares as a result of their overactive and vivid imaginations. Have you noticed that she is engaging in more pretend play, role playing, imaginative activities. Although, Cam hasn't experienced such traumatic nightmares, she does share with us her extremely detailed and vivid "sleep stories." They say limiting TV before bed can sometimes help...
Last spring, my daughter (then 3 years old) also had a period when she would wake up very night terrified and telling us there were monsters in her room and in her bed attacking her. When prompted she explained the monsters were eating her feet and her legs. She was even terrified to be in her bed and we had to let her sleep with us a few times. We got worried and talked to our pediatrician. As it turns out she was having growing pains. After the pain went away she was still too scared to go back to sleeping in her own bed so we had to convince her the monsters were gone. I made an "Anti-Monster spray" with a spray bottle from the Target dollar bin, a few drops of Lavender oil and food coloring mixed in water. After a couple of evening of spraying her room furiously, she agreed the monsters were gone and she's been sleeping fine since then.
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Oh wow, how scary!! Poor sweet Riley (and mommy, too)! :( I hope she's had the last of nightmares for a long time!
Oh man that is so tough! Nate went through some nightmares a few months ago but seems to have gotten past it. I think it might be the age. We also had to let him sleep with a ton of light in his room (so much that I was convinced he wouldn't sleep) and that helped a lot. You guys have been through a lot lately, maybe she's a little anxious?
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