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[phoebeanddaphne]

Phoebe has been having really bad nightmares to the point that she's afraid to go to sleep. And they are really freaky ones too, like they would freak me out. For example about 3 am this morning P woke up in tears and told me that the pictures in her eyes were scary and I asked her what the pictures were and she said that mommy kept driving over

Comments

[juliel]

Our daughter went through about a 2 month spell of night-terrors that all stemmed from 1 movie that her grandmother let her watch.
We made it a point to NEVER go into her room and say things like "don't be scared" or "what are you scared of" type things. We didn't want to feed the fear in any way at all. Instead, we would just say "oh did you wake up" or "you're ok, let's get back to sleep so we can have a fun day tomorrow" type thing?
That's all I can offer as advice, she (our daughter) got over it, and thankfully is sleeping again, but it was extremely difficult at the time!

[phoebeanddaphne]

So for your daughter it took about two months? Because the first couple of nights I did just that and told her just to go to sleep, and she had a few tears but all was good, and then one night when I put her back to bed and she started crying and screaming to the point I was scared for her, saying that the pictures in her eyes made Tampsen (that's her friend) die. It's more disconserting that she's dreaming such scary things like dying and falling over cliffs then having bad dreams alone ya know? I'm wondering where a three year olds pick up on death when nobody around her has died or been hurt.

[gracevlikevrain]

Do you guys watch VeggieTales? They have one that's called "W
here's God when I'm scared?" (Fun song: "God is bigger than the boogie man..." in fact, there's even a line in that song that says, "there's something big and scary casting shadows on the wall :) Maybe it could encourage her a bit.

We've only had to deal with that one night so far, when she woke up in a panic crying, "where's my sister?" Once I told her that Kate was sleeping fine in mommy's room, she was okay and went back to sleep. So maybe if you gently bring her back to reality, like saying, "Mommy's car is in the driveway and we're all safe at home tonight." Praying about bad dreams can help, too.

[juliel]

oh yeah, we do that too..
every night when we pray together, we always ask Jesus for sweet dreams :)

[phoebeanddaphne]

We have a couple of Veggie tales but she never got into them really. And this is a dumb thing and everybody is going to be like WTF but how do you introduce that praying helps to a three year old? I mean we've talked about God and Baby Jesus and that they love her very much to a point but I'm not sure that she grasps it. And I pray and I have my own relationship with God but how do you convey those things to someone who when explaning that Christmas is Jesus' birthday thinks that Santa Clause is Jesus and that he's going to bring her toys and a birthday cake?

[gracevlikevrain]

Well, I started to type on this one, and then I went on this long rant that turned out to be more of a meandering on my part than addressing your thoughts, so I posted that in my mom journal - me_as_mom, (you're welcome to look at that!) and I'll just go with the conclusion I came to for you...

So "how do you show praying helps..." just encourage her to ask God for help, and then let God take care of the results. He won't let her down.

And about the Christmas stuff, just pray and watch for chances to talk about it. She'll get it eventually. Last year Amy went through an Old Testament story book and thought every man with a beard was Santa Claus. :) Kids are very concrete thinkers, so of course they'll think birthday=cake and presents, and wonder how this whole Jesus person figures into things. There's always a good old Nativity scene to start with...acting out a little Christmas scene with the figures. I think childhood is about building the foundation on what they can grasp, and they'll get the abstracts later.

[happyhothead]

I was definitely going to suggest praying with her before bed and then maybe quietly pray over her after. My son went through a short period of nightmares when he was about two. Somebody told me to pray over him and pray over his room and to ask God to bring to my mind anything that might be causing the problem. I immediately thought about a new book about crocodiles that someone had bought for him and I removed it from his room. Of course I don't know if that was the culprit, but the nightmares stopped!