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January 19, 2007
On Puppets And Sleepless Nights
I'm tired.
I take that back...I'm EXHAUSTED!!! We all are!
Alexis has not been sleeping well for the past several weeks. She keeps having nightmares. Nightmares about puppets!
Do we have any puppets?
No.
Her one and only puppet has long since been relegated to the bottom of a bin in her closet when she started having puppet issues last year. Yet still every night we are having bad puppet dreams.
I'm telling you folks...Puppets are BAD!
Last night Alexis went to bed around 7:00 pm as usual. Around 8:45 pm the nightmares began. Every hour or so she'd cry and say there were "scary noises in my room" and "there's a puppet in my bed!" Jamison checked on her a few times. I checked on her a few times. She'd settle back down and go back to sleep, if she even really woke up to begin with, most of the time she was simply stirring in her sleep. That was until around 12 am.
I went to bed at 11:30 or so and had just fallen asleep when around midnight Miss G woke up hysterical and came running into our room as fast as her little legs would carry her, doors flying and panic in full throttle. I put her into bed with us and we went to sleep until around 2:30 when Alexis had pushed me so close to the edge of the bed that I couldn't take it anymore. So I took her back to her room and she went back to sleep until another puppet incident around 4 am when she came flying back to our room, and in the process hit her hand on one of the door knobs when she went back to retreive her bear and needless to say that went over like a lead balloon! She stayed in our room until she and I woke up around 8:15 am as Jamison was getting out of the shower. So these dreams suck, either that or sock puppet is pulling a Toy Story and harassing her in her sleep. I lean toward the dreaming sucking part of the equation, but anything is possible! ;o)
Needless to say I got little sleep and when I was asleep having to be conscious of not being pushed off the bed by my little bed hog did not make for good sleep and has thus made me grumpy. And Alexis' mood isn't much better! Jamison didn't sleep much either so we're all just a big bunch of sleepy grumps! I've said it before and I'll say it again I don't do that all night stuff! When Alexis started sleeping through the night at around 4 months old on a consistent basis I rejoiced! But these past two weeks are reminding me all too much of the early days when we first brought her home when we woke up every four hours or so and did the nighttime thing. The nightime thing is not my cup of tea!
We've talked about puppets and how Mommy and Daddy will make sure she is ok. We've talked about how bear watches over her when she's in her room. I gave her a super duper (imaginary) puppet potion to spray on the puppets to make them go away, but still nothing! We even threw in God and Jesus for good measure and none of it works! She's too smart for that stuff. She's no fool!
But her fear is real and I'm not quite sure where it came from. When these incidents happen her heart rate is elevated and the whole situation is very real to her and because of that fact I can't just dismiss it outright and send her back to bed without calming her and assuring her that everything is ok. That would be mean. And if that means she pushes me to the edge of my bed for a little while so be it, but dear God I am sick of puppets!!
Is a good night's sleep too much to ask for?
Posted by Dianne at January 19, 2007 10:32 AM
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Comments
aww! You know I think this is quite a common fear. We had a puppet show at the library a couple of months ago and one of the little kids just freaked out when she saw the puppets. Her mom had to take her out of the room. She was screaming, "I want to go home, I want to go home." I mean, she was really afraid!
Posted by: Monica at January 19, 2007 11:20 AM
okay, first of all, you are able to get her to go to sleep at 7pm? you are my hero!!!!!
as for puppet nightmares, we have dreams of gooey's (whatever they are, i have no clue).
celia has a guardian angel nightlight book that she can press the button when she gets scared. of course, that doesn't stop her from coming into our room. i think it's quite a normal phase around this age of being scared, nightmares and making sure the parents don't sleep.
Posted by: gorillabuns at January 19, 2007 11:58 AM
I can't figure out where she has seen puppets recently. She saw an episode of Blues Clues a long time ago, but I've really cut back on her TV watching and she only watches it once a week or so and she hasn't seen Blue in months, let alone the puppet episode!
I can see why they'd be scary. They are a bit freakish!
Posted by: Dianne at January 19, 2007 11:59 AM
Alexis has an LCD night light in her room. I think I may add another one!
Posted by: Dianne at January 19, 2007 12:06 PM
okay, the sleeping at 7pm and t.v. once a week, not to count the 13 homecooked meals a day. how do you manage to be mother of the year?
and most importantly, how do you find the energy in doing so?
Posted by: gorillabuns at January 19, 2007 12:40 PM
Right before Xmas Alexis was sick on and off for a couple of months and I ended up letting her watch way more TV than I usually do and it made her so aggressive! So we cut back on it and it was like night and day difference in her demeanor! I'm convinced Noggin has some sort of subliminal something or other going on there! LOL
As for bed time she's usually in bed between 7 and 7:30. If she stays up any later than that she just gets screechy and I just can't take the screechy! LOL On days she doesn't have naps she is sometimes in bed between 6 and 6:30! She's very sleep oriented that way and always has been luckily!
When I get enough sleep I usually have tons of energy. On days like today not so much! I'm pretty much a blob today! I just want to curl up into a ball and do nothing and pretty much have so far! LOL
Mother of the year? Not me! I complain too much! ;o) LOL
Posted by: Dianne at January 19, 2007 12:47 PM
She does have a little help too. Someone that gets up with Alexis in the morning, feeds her breakfast, despams the blog, despams the email inbox, packs his own lunch, makes his own breakfast, gives her an extra hour sometimes two hours a beauty sleep, puts up the dishes in the dishwasher, empties the dryer, moves clothes from the washer to the dryer, and sometimes even fills the washer again. Then most nights gives Alexis a bath, dresses her for bed, reads her stories, sings songs to her, rocks her, and puts her to bed. Who is that guy? ;p
Posted by: Jamison at January 19, 2007 1:50 PM
I fully admit you give me lots of help! Without you I'd be lost!
Posted by: Dianne at January 19, 2007 1:56 PM