A few weeks ago I was woken in the middle of the night by Miss Frugal practically jumping on me in floods of tears. She was crying so hard that she could hardly breathe let alone speak.
Once I’d been able to make sure that she wasn’t hurting or in pain, I hugged her until she managed to calm herself down enough to talk to me and when she did, she told me that she’d had a nightmare. A nightmare that she couldn’t talk about without starting to cry again other than to say that we all died in it.
I calmed her down, told her it was just a nightmare and reassured her that we were all OK and then we snuggled together and went back to sleep. I thought that was that and haven’t really thought anything about it since that night.
But last night when I was tucking her up in bed, I found a little tiny doll that we bought on holiday last year tucked up under her pillow. I went to move it to her bedside cabinet and she grabbed it back off me. It turns out that she’s been using it as a little worry doll and every night since the first nightmare she’s asked the doll to make sure she doesn’t get another nightmare and to keep us all safe.
That just makes me so sad.
To know that she’s so worried about having this awful nightmare again that she thinks about it every night before she goes to sleep.
I don’t think for one minute think that there’s anything more to it than the nightmare scaring her that much that she’s worried about having it again and she’s still her usually happy (and slightly hormonal) self most of the time but it still makes me sad that she feels like this even just for a little while before she goes to sleep.
I’m pretty sure that there’s not much I can do to help her with this, a little time should make the memory of the nightmare fade which should lessen her fear of having it again but until then, it’ll be extra hugs at bedtime.
