"I'm scared"

background: A&R share a room.

R is now scared of everything in the room. There was a ghost in the closet, now there are dragons coming in the window, he's scared of the curtains moving, and not only is it affecting his sleep, it's now affecting Alice's and my sleep too.

I've taken down the outer set of curtains because he was scared of the hippos on the fabric. That left the black out curtains which are heavy so they really don't blow in the wind. I've turned off the fan in the room so the curtains don't move at all. Alice gets a little worried if Royce gets out of control scared, but she's pretty stable and really just wants to sleep (that's my girl!)

Last night was THREE and a half hours of scared. Put them to bed at 8, read a few books, then he started up. Alice was still telling him to be quiet at 9:15, so I put him in our bed (which I did for Alice so she could get some sleep.) I fell asleep with him in our bed awake. He was quiet and finally fell asleep, when my husband picked him up at 11:00 to put him to bed, he woke up. Which started it all over again and woke me and Alice up. At 12:30 I was still awake because he was still boo-hooing in the bedroom. I checked on him occasionally and tried to get him to calm down. . .

Finally he fell asleep. It was almost 1. What would you do?

a. Separate bedrooms for the kids. We have the room, I just don't want to lose my only free space in the house yet. But I will if I need to.

b. New blanket? New pillow? New toy? Something to chase the dragons away? Something physical he can touch to "keep him safe?"

c. I don't know. This is getting old. It's not every night, but probably 5 nights out of 7.

 

Bex-when my kids get scared I tell them that they dont have to worry because mommy and daddy dont let bad things in our house (robbers, ghosts, monsters, dragons etc...) and then I would personally lay in there with them until they fell asleep (for a while anyway).
Good luck lady!!

 

Toddler beds + extremely tall person = impossible.

 

Bex, we used dream spray. My Allison was terrified of going to sleep because she thought she would have nightmares, so every night before they would go to bed I would spray dream spray in their room (it was just Febreeze for automobiles ) But it worked. Maybe you can get some monster spray or something. We used it for about 6 months and then I "lost" it and we have never used it since.

 

How about turning on the light in the closet or getting a night light? I had a few weeks of my one DS being scared in their room. It's decorated in everything Toy Story. He would wake up screaming that Buzz & Woody scared him. At first I thought it was his pillow case, but when I switched it to a plain blue one, he freaked out because he wanted that one. :unknw:

After a very late night one evening, I told him that I would leave the light on in the hallway and after I did that and closed the door, he went right to sleep.

I have since put a small night light in their room that I leave on all the time (so I don't forget and get woken up at 2:00 a.m.) :good: It's been a few months since the last episode so I'm hoping that did the trick.

Another thing we used are Mobi Glowmates. I bought theirs online, but I have seen them at Walmart. They have a 15 minute timer or they can be left on all night.

How about a picture of you and/or your DH? I have a picture of my late DH in their room and that same night I told him to take Daddy's picture and that he would protect him. He now sleeps with that picture under his pillow. :wub:

I hope you can find something that works.

 

They sleep with lights on in the room, and they get to sleep with their ghostlights which are like the Mobi lights but from Ikea and look like ghosts and surprisingly he isn't scared of that. I like the picture idea. I will try that.


ETA: Rachel - we already used dragon spray but I lost the container of it. I guess I can find a similar container and do it again since it was mostly successful last time.

 

My son gets scared sometimes (storms mostly) and we told him his Dinosaur stuffed animal will protect him from the scary stuff. Now all we have todo is give him that stuffed animal and he is ok. I hope you find something that works.

 

Can you get him a flash light or something he can control when he gets scared? It's normal at this age, Aaron went through it and he still sleeps with a light on from it. I know how tired you are and feel your pain. What worked for us was a more structured routine ahead of time that calmed him down to sleep and we made sure he had everything he needed (lights on, blanket, lovey, etc). He was allowed out of bed 1x and that was it. We also did the monster spray (fabreeze) but monsters didn't seem to last.

Has there been a shift in their routine somewhere else? New class, new friends? Something like that?

 

Two of their friends (almost fives) came back to daycare from preschool.

 

Another idea would be to make a photo pillow that he could sleep with. I know you can order them from Walgreen's for about $10.

 

He might be worried because they "went away" and now they are back. I realize it would make more sense for him to be worried when they left but returning could have made him start to worry about things like will he have to leave, where would he go, the big school sounds big and scary. I say talk to him about where the kids went, let him know that yes, he's gonna go to school too but you'll be there to help him through and make it very very very neutral.

 

If that fails, can I drop him and a dozen cupcakes off at your house tonight at, oh say 10:00?

 

Chocolate. I like sprinkles also.

 

Curbside cupcakes have already left.

 

He'll have to sleep in the playhouse then Good luck. I hope you have an easier night. I remember a time with Aaron when he wouldn't go to bed until late and we were just so exhausted we nearly killed each other fighting over it.

 

We stopped by the dollar tree last night and picked up two small spray bottles and filled them with 1/2 water, 1/2 downy wrinkle release. Told them both that dragons and monsters don't like the way sweet things smell, and if they sprayed their room with the spray they'd be fine (we went through the dragon spray LAST year too).

I went to bed at 8:15 since I had to be up at 4:15 and they were quietly reading books to each other when I checked on them at 8:15. So I guess it worked again. I asked if I could hang the curtains up again soon and we agreed on over the weekend.

 

I am glad you had an easier night.

 

I'm glad it worked, Bex. I hope this little stage is short lived!

 

Dragon and or monster/ghost spray is some good stuff. It has kept them out of my house before too. I am glad it worked and I hope it continues to!!!!