3/14/11

Dreamcatchers

My middle daughter is 3 years old. She has been waking up at night since about a month before baby was born. She has been getting up 3-4 times per night, and crying out for me or my husband. She sleeps fine if she is co-sleeping, but our queen bed is not large enough for all four of us.
I think of this night waking as a normal part of middle child syndrome. She often does not get the attention she needs or wants during the day. She is exposed to movies and stories that are probably too visually dramatic and scary, simply because her older sister is watching them and I don't think twice about it. She was the baby for almost 3 years, and now she is second or third fiddle. 
My friend Lois recommended making a dreamcatcher. The girls and daddy went out looking for sticks yesterday and I assembled some yarns and beads from a broken bracelet. We made some really pretty dreamcatchers! Dreamcatcher from branch and yarn
They didn't work. She was up a ton last night. This too will pass!

2 comments:

  1. I feel your pain....Sullivan is up too, with nightmares....a good thing is that nightmares are supposed to be a symptom of a great and vivid imagination...so I suppose that's good.....maybe we'll have a couple of amazing writers on our hands.
    We've started discouraging Sullivan from coming to the bed - we need to have some sacred space in the house - so something that's helped him is a little clock - I found it on Amazon and it's been great...it gives a gentle glow all night, and we've programmed it to switch colors at an appropriate time of the morning. Also, we have a Crayola glow station next to his bed and we've taken to drawing pictures together before he falls asleep so he can think about "happy things..." obviously it fades, but I think it helps him focus on something less scary than a dark shadowy room as he falls asleep. We have various other "take away the bad dreams" rituals....and they don't always work...but he's learning that bad dreams are just an unfortunate part of life.
    I love dream catchers, but I sometimes think that having reminders of bad dreams around didn't help him...for a while we tried making "No Monster" signs and stuff, but then he just focused on the monsters...and not on the comfort of the sign...
    anyway...just some thoughts. Good luck! someday we'll sleep again...

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  2. Oh thank you so much for the ideas. I am going to look into the glow station and clock. She often wakes up sage too early in the morning, and then sage is cranky (rightfully so). The clock would be perfect, especially for these longer days.

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