Clara's been having lots of nightmares lately. I think I mentioned she dreamed she was drowning recently. Well, last week she awoke from an even more disturbing dream.
I ran into her room because she sounded absolutely terrified. She was sitting up and her hands were straight up in the air. I pulled her close and told her it was ok, but she kept on. It wasn't until after it was over that I thought maybe it was a night terror.
I asked her what was wrong and through tears she said "big hands." I asked her what she meant by big hands and then she grabbed her face and screamed. She did that a couple more times and then said "it hurts!" I asked her what hurt and she said "the hands" and pointed to her neck. Anytime I said the word hands she freaked out and let out these horrible guttural screams I've never heard from her before.
I think she may have dreamed someone was choking her. I kept telling her there were no hands, it was just a dream and she laid back down, stopped crying and let me leave the room. That's why I think it was a night terror. Unlike nightmares, they don't remember night terrors. She probably would have been more scared after the fact had it been a nightmare. I went back to bed and although she fell asleep peacefully, I lay awake disturbed by the fact that my sweet little girl had just dreamed about something so terrible. I asked her the next morning if she remembered her dream and thankfully she didn't remember a thing. Too bad it's not something I'll soon forget.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Unsweet Dreams
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5 comments:
Travis has been having this problem too. But he also is just having fears too, like of the dark and ghosts coming through his wondows. I wish I know what to do and how to help him not be scared. Tell Chris to look for a book on Saturday...
Lilly has night terrors and they are just awful! I feel helpless; just like you do. Lilly is running away from something in her dream/terror and can't run fast enough! It's awful. I have talked with her pediatrician and there just isn't a lot that can be done about them. I do hope she "grows" out of them soon. The screaming that comes from them is just awful and terrifying. Mac never had them. I just don't get why some kids get them and some don't?? The only thing that seems to help Lilly is having her watch her favorite Wiggles movie or Barney movie about a 1/2 hour before bed. She seems to fall asleep thinking about them and says she dreams about them and that they are happy dreams...
I know what you mean Danielle; it's just impossible to convince them there's nothing to be afraid of. Clara has some fears also but not too bad. She usually goes to bed without a problem.
And poor Lilly. It's terrible not being able to fix it for them. I told Clara to think about ballet, My Little Ponies and other happy things when she's in bed so that maybe she can dream about them.
She's now started praying for God to help her dream about My Little Ponies and "the show". (She went with a friend to a Disney show on stage.)
This last one was the night after we got back from Pecos, so I think her being sick and traveling is probably what triggered it. She usually only has them when her routine gets way out of whack.
I feel like I'm treading in an area that is not mine to be in but I bounced over here from Linda's blog.
I just wanted to say that, while my oldest had night terrors for a while and they were severe and often, he did not remember having them the next morning. He would wake up at night with his heart pounding and the only thing I could do was keep myself calm and let him know gently that everything was OK. He would finally go back to bed and sleep.
Very hard on parents but again, I'm glad that he did not remember them in the morning. It seems to have passed now but that was a challenging time
Most people don't know the difference between nightmares and night terrors. It's hard to explain that they seem awake but they can't "snap out of it".
Good luck.
R
Poor Clara! And poor you!
I didn't even know what night terrors were when my kids were little, but Chris did have something similar to this, several times, when he was about 6 or 7 years old. Every time it happened he was either running a low grade (never high) fever or just getting over being sick. It was the same every time. He would cry and scream that he was "going too fast; stop me, stop me!" I tried to get him to tell me more about it, but that's all he could tell me. All I could do was hold him tight and talk to him in as calm a voice as I could muster. It was very frightening to Dan and me, and Chris' doctor wasn't much help with it. He did outgrow them.
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