Motherhood — parenthood — in general is a wonderful adventure. For all the aggravation our children cause us, for the challenges they present, the opportunities for wonder, joy, and love are by and away larger, sweeter, and leave a longer lasting impression than the petty (and tough) daily grind.
Motherhood — parenthood — has moments of wonder, joy, and love that we parents will revisit over and over again. That we attempt to capture — in words, in pictures, in the stories we tell. That we look forward to revisiting as our children grow. “Remember the time,” we will say, and we will laugh.
And then there are the times and challenges that, really, we’d rather not revisit. Like, oh, I don’t know—the sleepless nights, the middle-of-the-night wakenings, not to feed and bond sleepily, but to soothe and comfort. Middle-of-the-night infant feedings and changes are different than the screaming 2-year-old that needs mommy and/or daddy immediately right now next to her in the dark.
Which is all a round about way of saying: we seem to be revisiting this issue with Bun again. We’ve been revisiting it every night for the past two weeks (since we got back from vacation) between 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning.
Sometimes I hear her crying, and I wait a bit. And she’ll drop back to sleep.
Most of the time, though she’ll get out of her bed, and I won’t hear her until she’s trying to climb into ours. If the gate is still up, she’ll scream until one of us stumbles to her door. “Up!” she’ll cry. “Up, up, mama!”
Thank goodness Monkey is a deep sleeper. Unfortunately, so is DearDR.
I ask if her ear hurts. “No,” she whimpers. She isn’t running a temperature. “Did you have a bad dream?” “Yeah,” she whispers, burrowing into my side, sharp elbows and knees digging in and hanging on. Sometimes, after she drops off again in our bed, she’ll thrash and cry out again.
Two weeks. I am seriously considering calling the pediatrician, but what are they going to tell me?
Wait it out, probably. Again.
Is there a way to prevent bad dreams?
Red Pen Mama 
Poor Bun 😦
You are so right that the newborn wakings are much different than these toddler wakings. As Alex goes from sleeping through the night to suddenly having periods where he wakes up a bunch during the night I find myself struggling far more than I ever did when he was a baby.
Has she been able to tell you about the dreams at all?
I don’t know anything about how to prevent them…but I do hope she “gets over it” soon. For her sake and yours!