Last week Spencer started SCREAMING in the middle of the night. By the time Michael got to him he was full on sobbing. This is not typical. He usually wakes up at some point (anywhere from midnight to 7 am) and calls for us and asks if he can come into our room. Once he's with us he's asleep again within 30 seconds.
Michael went running in there, scooped him up and delivered him into my arms. He was still crying so I rubbed his face and head and asked him if he had a bad dream. I've been asking him this for over a year now and have never gotten an answer one way or another. This night though, he said yes. I asked him what it was about. He said someone was cutting his face.
Right then and there my heart fell out of my body and I stopped breathing. I started calculating how much intensive therapy costs and how long it would take to get my 3-year-old back to a mentally healthy state. I also wondered where we went wrong with our parenting and how he could have gotten such a horrifying idea into his head. Now I'm completely awake and on alert, so I ask him again what his dream was about. I need more details- who was cutting his face, what were they using, etc.
He repeats himself: someone was coloring on his face. Blood pressure lowering. No longer calculating deductibles for long term mental health facilities. Coloring on the face, while apparently scary to the under 5 crowd, is not troubling to this mama at 2 am.
I curled up with him, told him he was safe, and we went back to sleep. Then I woke up hours later with him still on my arm and I had to start figuring out the price for an arm amputation due to severe lack of blood flow.
I should have known that such a goofy kid couldn't be so terribly troubled.
Now every night at bedtime Spencer wants to rehearse what he should do if someone is coloring on his face. He wants to act out how he will call me and how I will rub his face and tell him he's safe. It's all so very sweet and totally non-psychotic, which is how I like my youngins to be.
3 comments:
Poor kid. And mom and dad too. Wishing Spencer sweet dreams.
Oh my goodness. That would be very troubling to hear your child say. Spencer is not my bambino and I gasped a little and felt the feeling you get before the tears come on when I read what you first heard him say.
Phew. Coloring on the face is much better.
In our family we always say "Eat Beans" at bedtime (Kendra's version of "Sweet Dreams"!)...works most of the time!!!
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