It is 3:55am and I have now been up with my 3 year old for one hour. Check that, I attempted to calm her and even sleep with her for 45 minutes before bringing her downstairs to distance her from the "bugs" in the rooms. But after a number of hysterical wake ups I moved our location.
And yes, you heard me right, bugs. And no, we do not have a pest problem.
The end of winter has arrived and with the warming weather our old home ens up with tiny visitors such as spiders and sow bugs. Both are harmless and would rather run away than be caught. Unfortunately with the last warm week of +10 temperatures we have had an influx of the latter in our home.
I love my 3 year old. She is imaginative, comical, and doesn't let anyone push her around. She is also stubborn and prone to hysterical meltdowns. Combine this with her imagination and we have a recipe for night terrors.
Of course, like any mom, I worried right away. So after we came downstairs I went online for some quick advice. There were a ton of posts of mom's freaking out over their child's behaviour: stating their children must have a mental illness or be psychic. My first thoughts: those poor kids, not because they might have any of those "scenarios" but that their mom's were hysterical over it. Hopefully their mom's didn't freak out in front of them, which ends up making a stressful situation ten times worse. So what did I do? I continued to search for more level-headed conversations and found a great post on mamapedia.
I used to overreact with my first child. I would read every book and post online about raising children the right way and every possible ailment a symptom could be related to. It stressed me out and in turn stressed out my now 7 year old. After I had my second child I realized the stress wasn't worth it. It's been hard the last 3 years to keep the stress down, but I have worked hard at lowering the rush of anxiety in our home and focusing on slowing things down and appreciating the moments.
No, it's not easy for me to be up at 3am. I work full-time and have a 7 year old sleeping upstairs that needs to get up in two hours for school. I have meetings in the morning at work that cannot be missed. But what's important right now is that I keep a level-head and assure my 3 year old that she is safe and everything will be okay. As we sit on the couch, cuddling and watching cartoons, she keeps smiling and looking at me telling me she loves me. This is worth the tired day I'll have at work tomorrow.
