Last night I got home late after my bass lesson, and ordering my "No on 8" shirts & hats from my bass teacher's wife, so I missed most of the debate. When I got home I said good night to the girls who were in bed, chatted with Laura, got dinner, talked on the phone, etc... then sat down to watch the debate downstairs. Laura went to bed. I fell asleep toward the end & woke up when it was over, turned off the TV and headed upstairs to go to bed. As I went up the stairs I could hear Sophie talking, and as I get to the kitchen I see her in the living room, talking to herself. No one else is there. She's got her arms outstretched & saying "Because!" in a moaning voice, clearly upset. But no one is in the room with her. Talk about CREEP.Y.
Man these night terrors are weird. Since I've read up on them I'm a little better equipped to handle them than the first night, but that doesn't diminish how weird it is to see your kid go through this! I picked her up and took her to my bed.
I said "It's OK" and she said back "It's OK, It's OK, It's OK".
I said, "Don't be scared, Mama's here." and she said "Scared...I'm so scared."
I said, "I'll protect you" and she said, "Protect me Mama! Protect me!" again moaning and scared.
But I started to realize that she was just repeating exactly what I was saying, and since I was voicing scared feelings, so was she.
So then I said, "You're OK, you're happy, you're sleepy, you're relaxed. Relaxed and sleepy" and bingo, almost instantly her body relaxed, she rolled onto her side and snuggled against me and settled down, and she didn't say another word. I kept repeating "relaxed and sleepy" until I was certain she was asleep, which didn't take long. She was so open to suggestion. I feel like I won a prize for calming her down so easily though.
Still, it's all very disconcerting. We have a parent-teacher conference today, so will definitely be asking about what's going on in school!
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