Troubles with Nightmares.

My poor little guy has had nightmares time to time. Once it was alligators in the living room.

But a few nights ago it was an eagle beak dancing in his room. No eagle attached, just a big, scary beak. Kinda freaky, huh?

He woke up 2 nights ago and went in to his sister’s room and told her.  He climbed into her bed and after he fell asleep, she tried to move him back. He woke up and cried, very scared to go back to bed. So she put him back in her bed and slept in his the rest of the night.

Yesterday he went upstairs for naptime and seemed really quiet, which is unusual. Normally he just plays really loudly for a couple hours. I went up and found him in dd’s bed with a few books; he had fallen asleep. When he woke up, I asked him why he was sleeping in his sister’s bed. He was still afraid of the eagle beak!

I took him into his room and we looked around for it. We talked about real and pretend and dreams, and logically, he understands. But the emotion dreams contain is so powerful. He even looked under his bed and confirmed no beak under there.

Last night dh went to put him in bed. He started crying pretty quickly and wouldn’t talk to dh about what was wrong. Eventually dh brought him down and we were able to calm him down. He was still afraid of the eagle beak. I think he was afraid he’d dream it again more than it being there.

We put him to sleep in my bed and he woke up fine this morning. Luckily no bad dreams.