1. Layla had a HORRIBLE nightmare two nights ago. I just felt awful for her. I think it was maybe 3:00 a.m. when I heard her screeeeeeeaming on the monitor. When I ran in there she was curled up in the fetal position, both hands pressed tight to her eyes. I tried to comfort her and calm her down, but she just remained tense and tight. I took her to the bathroom, because 90% of the time, if she wakes up at night, it's just because she needs to go to the bathroom. She went, but still with both hands pressed tightly to her face. Her talk was something about "the big one" and "make it go away," etc. Finally I just had to play along a bit and tell her that Mommy got "it," "it" was gone now, etc. I sloooowly pried her hands away from her face, and she looked around the room frantically in total fear.
My heart just broke. Oh, age 4. I remember you. The age the nightmares started. :( I think I had some bad, bad dreams from about age 4 to age 8, as far as I can remember.
Last night was the first night we have had to leave Layla's closet door all the way open, with the light on, when she went to bed. She was still afraid. Poor Baby. I talked to her a bit about it, and I am thinking it was a dragon she was afraid of...at least that's what she told me last night. Who knows if it was what she was afraid of the night before. She asked to come in with us the night of the nightmare, which of course I said yes to--you could feel the fear melting off of her as she left the room with me. :( Once again, SO glad I held out for that king size bed when we got married. Jonas couldn't understand my absolute insistence on it...but I knew. ;)
2. I know people who can function just fine, regularly, on 4-6 hours of sleep a night. This seems insane to me, as I as someone who needs 8-9 hours to feel "great." Because I know myself, I normally make a very high priority of going to bed at a very reasonable time. Rarely will I ever got to bed after 10:00, especially with having kids--you never know when you'll need to get up, right? Well, last night I made a mistake. I stayed up until 11:45 p.m. watching TV. SO lame. Such a bad choice. But it was fun at the time. :)
Of course, on nights when you make a bad personal decision, what happens? You know the answer to this. That's right: kids happen. ;) Finn actually did just fine "sleeping through the night," but after 10 hours of sleep he decided that was enough...at 5:00 a.m. UGH. He is the worst too, because he wakes up and wants to DO STUFF AND GET BREAKFAST RIGHT AWAY COME ON MAMA! It's so jarring (at least when Layla wakes up she will snuggle with me in bed for ages!). As I had only been asleep for 5 hours (which I know is fine for some people, yes, I get it...just not for me...), this was not okay. I was walking through cement to get to him. I try to bribe Finn with a movie/show of some sort when he wakes up, but this rarely goes as planned. He is just so neeeeedy when he wakes up, and he especially likes to poke at my closed eyes if I somehow find a way to rest again. Twerp. ;) Then, Layla woke up around 5:45--SO unusual for her, but of course, this was the morning for it, right? I finally got them both settled in my bed, next to me, watching a "Team Umi Zoomie" episode on my Kindle while I tried to at least rest some more.
Evidently the episode they watched was about cereal, because about 22 minutes later Layla was convinced that we all needed to go downstairs and eat "cereal and milk." Keep in mind, my kids have NEVER had cereal and milk (like normal kids!) because of their allergies. But, I had some almond milk on hand, and miracle-of-miracles some cereal too. I poured them each a bowl, and Layla had to check and make sure that it looked like the picture on the front. After that, all she did was stir it around and around. Finn actually took two bites! I was impressed, but neither of them wanted anything to do with the rest of it. Ah, well. At least they have now had cereal. :)
