Night Terrors, No Experience.

The Brookie Monster, who at times is a terror, starting have night ones recently. You would think with five brothers and sisters before her, we would know something about this and how to handle it. Unfortunately, none that came before ever had them. I honestly do not even remember too many bad dream episodes, even.

Cassie used to dream about ghosts and wake up scared, but she was a bit older, maybe 6ish. At six years old, you can explain things and they understand the concept of dreams by then. A toddler with limited vocabulary ....doesn't get it so much.

The first was a 3 am wake up. She was screaming and horrified at the butterflies all over the room and especially upset about the ones on her back. I can ward off any danger I can see when it comes to my kids, but how do you get rid of the imaginary ones? She appears to be awake and is talking about the butterflies still around her, but obviously she is still stuck in some scary place inbetween dreaming and awake.

The next day at 8am, I am downstairs straightening up when I hear blood-curdling screams again, "Get me out..GET ME OUT!!!!". I run up the stairs, thinking she is caught on something or stuck. I find her in the middle of the bed, shaking, with the blankets pulled to her chin. I asked what was the matter as I approached her and she looked cautiously around the bed. "Froggies gonna get me!".

The last two weeks it has continued. Once it was dinosaurs, then butterflies showed up again, then ladybugs and even Swiper, the fox, from Dora made a brief appearance. She seems to calm down relatively fast now, but during the day, out of the blue, she will start a Rainman type, repetative self-soothing ramble. "Butterflies not get me, frogs live in da water, not MY room, dinosaur all gone now, ladybug care me. Butterflies not get me................". By the way, she is an excellent driver.

So, on my priority list for the day is "research night terrors" and attempt to make them go away. My heart just aches for her. Maybe I can find some preventative measure to take before bedtime. At the worst, I will be a certified genius on night terrors. Just one more thing to add to MY imaginary list of expertise.