Do You See What I See?

Although I'm now well into adulthood, I can still remember vividly waking up in the middle of the night as a child and "seeing" spiders, little elves, and even people creeping and crawling around my room. They were more than just nightmares; until I was old enough to realize any better, they were real. My little sister, Laura, has struggled with the same problem. My hallucinations, you might call them, faded away before my teen years, but Laura still jokes about her latest late night fiascos every once in a while. It seems we Wolfe girls come out just a tad crazy. Now, after last night with Maddie, I'm afraid it might be genetic.

She went to bed like any other night. Prayers, two stories (one told by her and one told by me), and a good night kiss. About 2:30, though, we heard her panicking, hollering from her room. To be completely honest, I don't have a clue which one of us went in there first, me or Jeff. I think I took the first couple of visits, then we traded off from there. It's not uncommon for one of them to wake up once in the middle of the night every now and then, for various reasons. They dropped their Bebe, they had a bad dream, or Maddie occasionally asks for a drink of water. I just assumed this was one of those instances. After two or three trips to her room, though, it became clear it was something more. Eventually, I was informed that there were "animal sticker monsters" in her room and they were trying to get her. I calmly reassured her that there was no such thing and that nothing was trying to get her. A few more visits, at least an hour and a half, and quite a bit of exhausted frustration later, we finally gave in and just brought her to bed with us. One would assume this would solve the problem and Maddie would fall right to sleep, safe and secure in Mommy and Daddy's bed. Nope. She laid there awake for at least another hour, flopping around, sitting up (I'm assuming to check for the monsters), and fidgeting her feet. I consider myself to be on the more generous end of patience with my children, but I was nearing the end of my rope. At some point, she must have fallen asleep because so did I.

I decided not to mention it in the morning. No sense it bringing it up again when I hoped out of mind would mean out of sight. She hasn't said anything about it today, so I'm hoping the entire incident is long forgotten. During the night, I didn't give it much thought, but then I remembered Cadie's traumatic worries of spider invasions not so many months ago, which sparked memories of my own concerns as a kiddo. It reminded me how real those fears were for me when I was little, too young to know the difference between real and a sleep-induced haze.

Today, I'm exhausted, and can only hope for a Silent Night (are you catching all the Christmas song puns?) I ache for Maddie, knowing all too well how all consuming that fear can be. So, if she does happen to wake up in the middle of the night again, I'll do my best to be especially patient, reassuring her that Mommy and Daddy would never let anything get her. Especially, animal sticker monsters.