Night Fright

"Daddy, I don't want to go to sleep. I'll have a bad dream." Shane's eyes teared up. His little face turned red.

I heard him around 11:00 PM two nights ago. He woke and hyperventilated. I stared at the monitor, prayed, and listened. He never called out.

The next night, he woke around 10:30 PM. He attempted to cough and hyperventilate simultaneously. This time, he cried out. Between coughs, shakes and tears, Carrie and I were there in a flash. Shane either couldn't or didn't want to say what was wrong.

Carrie and I resettled him, but he coughed, gagged, and threw up less than half an hour later.

Shane told me more about his nightmare in the morning. There was a hurricane and two tornadoes. He was in tornado alley and it was scary.

Shane went all day before he mentioned it again. This time around 7:00 PM. "I don't want to have bedtime. I don't want to have a bad dream," Shane said.

Poor kid. I still remember my own nightmares. It wasn't fun.

I'm torn when I hear Shane have one. On one hand, I want to rush in and be there if he needs me. On the other, I don't want to prevent him from learning how to handle them on his own.

Either way, I end up on full alert and stare at the monitor. Sometimes Shane goes right back to sleep. Sometimes he calls for help. So far, he's been good about resettling and turning back in for the night. It feels like he has one nightmare and then he's okay the rest of the night.