Light Errors-Stealing a Pot O'Gold

First let me direct you to my original post on this subject. No, we are not talking about an error in lighting. We are talking about a child screaming in her sleep for hours on end. Let me tell you, it is not fun.

The last time this was all going on, we followed the doctor’s advice. We walked her through the house to see what made her nervous. We softened, as hard as it was to do so, on our bedtime routine and now we have something that is more drawn out and relaxed yet still a routine. We had a long talk about Star Wars being just a movie and stopped allowing Bud to watch it when she was in the room. It took some time, but it did work. We’ve been free of errors since mid-December.

It started again the middle of last week though: screaming, thrashing, crying out. Even waking her up did nothing to stop it. I was in her bed with her just trying to get a little bit of sleep. It was awful. We started talking to her Friday, trying to drag out what could be bothering her. Finally on Saturday she started asking all kinds of questions about Leprechauns. Lucy had a minor freak-out the previous weekend when she found her art supplies tipped over in her playroom. She was convinced that there were leprechauns in the house. If they messed up her classroom at school, then they must be here too. She could deal with leprechauns at school, but not at home. This led to a long discussion about leprechauns not being real, and begging a friend to call and say that she was the one who trashed the 1st grade classroom while the kids were outside. In the end Lucy was fine, and Liv seemed to be ok too.

It turns out though, that leprechauns visited Liv’s classroom as well. And if they also made it to the big kid’s school, they must be in our house. We talked and talked and talked about it and eventually convinced Liv that the pre-school director had messed up the classroom when the kids were outside; it was just a joke. Finally, Sunday night Liv slept.

Of course, Hub mentioned nothing of this to anyone at preschool at drop-off yesterday, and Liv came home utterly PISSED because when she told Miss C. that it was Director who messed up the room, and not a leprechaun, Miss C. said that OF COURSE it was a leprechaun! Why would Director mess up the classroom? My teeth nearly hit the floor. I know that we didn’t say anything to the teacher, and maybe she was just trying to further suspend disbelief, but seriously. If a 3-year-old tells you something like this, wouldn’t common sense ring some sort of bell? I just…ugh. Of course, Liv was up all night.

So I had to call the director this morning and explain everything to her. And ask her to please go and tell Liv that it was her, and reassure her that there are no leprechauns. She was more than agreeable, and is even going to show her how they used the green paint to make little foot prints. We’re lucky to have a fantastic relationship with her, and the center and thankfully she cares a lot about Liv.

I’m waiting for the director to email me to tell me how it goes, and then we’ll talk some more when she gets home. I just really hope it works. I am exhausted. She is exhausted. And I really just hate that she processes all of this fear in her sleep when I can’t help her.