Fashion Nightmares and Sleepless Nights
Okay, internet, it’s time to give advice. I’m asking for it and I promise to not complain when like three people mistakenly give assvice instead of advice and I know it’s going to happen because here we go with a parenting question …
HELP.
Mila. Nightmares. Now that I’ve had six or so weeks of screwed up sleep, I’ve finally determined FOR SURE that Mila is screaming and awake at night in part because she’s having bad dreams. It took me so long to figure it out because I’m dumb in the middle of the night and I didn’t think to engage her in a conversation. Because, you know, conversations are banned in the middle of the night. I temporarily lifted the ban and have since learned a few of the things that cause Mila to lose sleep.
Blue pants.
Penny looking at her.
Her friend at school sitting too close.
Noodles for dinner.
FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS. MILA HAS THEM.
Basically, she had a bad dream that was about me making her wear blue pants and ZOMG blue pants are the worst so that was definitely a nightmare. Then she had a nightmare that was exactly like her reality because she’s constantly flipping out about Penny making “eye contact” (quotes because Penny desperately needs a haircut and I doubt she can see a damn thing right now). Kids sitting too close is basically a day ending in “y” and I guess if you’re in the mood for waffles, noodles are the worst idea ever.
So, like, it’s not ACTUAL scary stuff that’s freaking her out. If it were, I’d be making monster spray or drawing pictures of scary things or SOMETHING to work it all out. I have absolutely no idea how to make a threenager stop having threenager nightmares, though. None. Is this a wait until the phase ends thing? Is it a blog about it daily because that jinxes her into having a good night thing?
WHAT DO I DO? Nothing? Something? HELP!
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Reader Comments (10)
I have no idea if it will work for you, but when my daughter was waking me up 5 times a night with nightmares at that age, no drinks within an hour of bedtime and making sure she used the bathroom right before bed helped a lot.
I used to tell my nightmare prone toddler WHAT she was going to dream about when i tucked her in. As in, tonight your better dream about kitties playing with balloons, because if you don’t I will!. Then in the morning, i’d ask..did you dream about kitties, i had DOGS in my dream.
Good Luck!!
You could try the monster spray. We call it "Happy Spray" & use an empty bottle so our daughter can spray herself/the dog/the corner of her room with the "magic" at any time & by herself. Ours took a bit of build up so we let her "spray" us quite a bit so she could see it turn us from sad to happy. The action of squeezing the squirt bottle trigger sort of worked like a stress ball for her too.
When my son was having nightmares when he was around 5 I bought him a dream catcher. I told him that it would catch all of his bad dreams so that he didn't have them anymore. For some reason that worked for him (and I tried other things before coming up with that idea.) Good luck! Getting woken up in the middle of the night is not fun.
My daughter went through something similar at that age. What helped us was quiet time before bed (no TV or tablet within 1 hour of attempting to get her to sleep) and talking about the best and worst parts of her day. Sometimes just saying out loud to someone else whatever the vile "thing" of the day was, is enough to vanish it from the subconscious. Here's hoping, in any case!
PS I've been re-reading your Harry Potter birthday posts (Genius by the way) and I have to ask how exactly did you attach the string to the card stock candles? I am craft challenged but I am determined to try and surprise my daughter next weekend. She has Asperger's and doesn't watch many movies but we have been winding our way through the HP films (LOVE!) and I want to do some special decorations for the final movie. Thanks for whatever help you can offer!
I wish I had advice to give. My daughter had a bout with night terrors when she was Mila’s Age and it was awful. I hope you find something that works, cuz screaming in the middle of the night is the worst.
Try using a humidifier in the room. The dry air may be causing her to wake up. Plus the humming sound can be soothing. You could also try to talk to her before bedtime about all her favorite things and tell her she should try to dream about those things at night. Good luck!
Have you tried melatonin gummies? I know it sounds hippie woo woo, but those things are magic.
We also did "monster spray" for a while - just a few drops of lavender oil in water to give it a faint scent. We also do a sound machine and humidifier. Who knows if they help, but I'm a believer in the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink method of problem solving.
The type of nightmare is different here, she told me there's a Big Hand coming out of her wall. I had the kids switch beds for one night so that the 6yo could report back about the Big Hand. He said he saw no hand. She hasn't dreamt about it since.
Is it the same time every night? I got told that if it is, you wake them enough to drink some water (disrupt the cycle) and supposedly that helps.