Dreams

Yes, it's Wednesday, it's all downhill from here to the weekend, phew. Kate has been having bad dreams every night for the past week, and showing up in the wee hours to sleep in my bed with me. Which means I am sandwiched between her and my husband, and they are both restless sleepers. Which adds up to several nights of crappy sleep for me, sigh. I have asked Kate what she dreams about, but until today she was drawing a blank, saying she couldn't remember anything, just that they were bad. When you're running on low sleep and your child shows up yet again at 1am to sleep with you, you do begin to doubt whether she is actually having a bad dream, or just enjoys the proximity of snuggling all night with mom - which of course my daughter is well known for. However this morning at breakfast something must have tweaked her memory, because she suddenly blurted out that she remembered her bad dream. Now, I have to admit I know she was dreaming after she joined me in bed last night, because at one point she shouted out in her sleep "Nooo!!" or something like that. So she tells me this morning that she was dreaming that we were riding in a car, and then we went over a bump, and she fell out, and we didn't notice and kept driving away without her....yikes. That IS a scary dream. Good grief. I have to ask myself, is this a "normal" dream for a 7 year old? Did I dream things like at her age? I did have a recurring nightmare that made no sense - no matter what I was dreaming at some point a little speck would appear and get bigger and bigger until I could see that it was this shining moon with a smily face, and it would keep getting bigger until it covered everything and I couldn't breathe and then I would wake up yelling...! Years later I was babysitting and we were watching a show called "The Friendly Giant" and at the end of every show, there was a song and a toy cow jumped over a shiny moon face...and oh my god, it was the scary moon face of my dreams, go figure how THAT got embedded into my psyche as an object of terror. So who knows what's normal I guess. As for Kate, the part that does seem typical of her dreams at least is a theme of being separated from me and our family, which I suppose isn't that strange for a little girl. And it would definitely explain why she feels the need to come up and get into bed beside me after having such a dream, even if she can't remember the details. Which is why I allow it, and try not to make a big deal when she shows up in the middle of the night needing some comfort. Before I had my kids I swore I wouldn't be one of those parents who allow their children to sleep with them. However, once you become a parent I guess you realize that every child is different, and you have to adjust your "plan" accordingly.
Hopefully Kate's dreams will settle down soon, and I can have some breathing room in bed again. Otherwise I will have to seriously consider upgrading to a king size mattress - it's amazing how much space a 7 year old can take up!