Nightmares

Chica Marie is suddenly having nightmares and difficulty staying asleep at night. She also wet the bed twice last week after months and months of no accidents. Last night, as I lay on the bottom bunk getting Love Bug to sleep, she expressed her fears. She doesn’t like being in her bedroom alone when Love Bug leaves to come sleep with me. She is afraid the person who broke our van windshield will come back and break into her bedroom. She worries about someone breaking in to rob us. She is scared of the dark, even though there is a nightlight in her bedroom, the kitchen, and the bathroom. She woke up screaming and crying last night, something she hasn’t done in a long time. I got up and helped her to the bathroom before collapsing back into bed. I didn’t sleep much after the disruption. Other than getting up and helping her calm down, I have no solutions to her nighttime angst. For a long, long time when she was younger, this was our nighttime routine. So many nights she would wake up screaming, calling for me. I would help her settle and fall back asleep then drag myself back to bed. This vandalism has had more reaching consequences than even I could have guessed. It enrages me that someone could do something so callously and upset the balance so wholly in our home. I really hope for more restful nights for Chica Marie and for me.