Two kids in one bed
Last night at 3 am, Kiki woke up after a nightmare. She couldn’t get back to sleep because she kept hearing noises that sounded scary. After about 30 minutes she abandoned her 12-year-old pride and called out for me. I talked to her about the dream. We discussed how it is hard to shed such a dream and how when we feel afraid, our minds try to create reasons for the fear. Kiki is prone to dramatic reactions. She really has grown amazingly capable at reigning herself in, but it is a struggle for her. Sometimes it is a struggle for me. I could tell that she was not going to go back to sleep if I left her in the room by herself. Left alone in the dark, she was just as likely to work herself into a frenzy of fear.
This was when I had one of my brilliant parenting moments. In order to respond to Kiki, I’d had to extricate myself from Patches who had crawled into bed with me. I thought about how much better I sleep when I’m not crowded by a preschooler. I thought about how when Howard is away on a trip, having a child in bed with me makes me less afraid and more able to sleep. It makes no logical sense. The child is not going to protect me. The opposite in fact, but having someone there makes me feel safer.
I scooped Patches out of my bed and tucked him into bed with Kiki. This worked wonderfully since neither of them wanted to be alone with the night. They snuggled up together and both fell right asleep. I crawled back into my bed and slept as well. Yay for happy solutions!