Chipmunks and More

Several months ago Andrew started to become scared at night. It started with him coming to our bed in the early morning, then in the middle of the night, and then as soon as we left his room from putting him to bed he ran to our bed. Then it moved to us just putting him to bed in our room. Matt and I weren't getting any sleep when he was in our bed, so we told him he could sleep in his bed or on our floor. Well, really Matt didn't say that...he didn't like the idea of Andrew being in our room at all. Matt also didn't like the idea of getting up in the middle of the night and since I was still working with Ella to get to sleep, I gave Matt two options: 1) you deal with Andrew in the middle of the night or 2) Andrew sleeps on our floor. Needless to say, Matt didn't lose a wink of sleep through the situation, but I was losing about 3-4 hours...Ella woke up Andrew up, got Ella to sleep, Andrew woke Ella up, etc. It was going on for a few hours every night, so I gave up and let Andrew sleep on our floor. Matt has been bugging me to get him back to his bed, but again not offering to get up in the night. I wasn't in a big hurry to move him back considering I still get up with Ella once a night, but when we were shopping at Wal-Mart Andrew saw all the bedding sets and got excited about them. So I thought maybe he would sleep in his bed with new bedding....

We went back to Wal-Mart and I told Andrew he could pick out new bedding if he started sleeping in his bed. He got excited and said, "Yeah, me sleep in my bed!", so I let him pick one. He first picked Dora (which was pink!), so I directed him toward Lightning McQueen and Thomas...he picked Lightning. We went home, put it on his bed, and he was excited...still saying "Me sleep in my bed". Bedtime came and of course he started changing his mind. He cried for awhile and tried to escape to our room, but eventually fell asleep in his bed. He came in our room at about 1:00 am. The next day he wanted to take a nap in his bed and he did! A good nap. I was excited, thinking this might really work. That night (the 2nd night of trying), Andrew did cry but half of what he cried the first night. Until he let out the most frightening cry I've ever heard at 11:30. I immediately popped up to see Andrew sprinting into our room. He leaped onto our bed and just laid on top of me. I took him back to his room and asked him what scared him. He showed me the shadows, so I explained they were just shadows. He said, "yeah" like he understood, so I asked him if he could lay back down in his bed. He wrapped his legs around me and grabbed me with a death grip and started shaking. He was actually trembling. I didn't make him go back to his bed after that! I put him on the floor but he didn't stay...he tried to get in our bed several times. The next morning I tried to talk to him about it. He told me that a big chick came out of his wall and somebody was behind his door. Creepy, right?! Later, he told Matt that chipmunks came out of his green wall. I'm glad he has a good imagination, but it is definitely working against him at bedtime. So since that night he has been terrified of his room at bedtime and now wants to take Lightning McQueen back (I told him he only got to keep it if he slept in his bed). He always talks about the chipmunks coming out of his green wall and somebody being behind his door. He won't even sleep well on our floor now. He tries to get in our bed all night. We now have to lay with him at nap and bedtime while he falls asleep. And last night, he came out to the living room crying and said that someone turned the fish light off...that someone came off the big bed and turned the fish light off. We have a timer on our fish tank, so it had just turned off. Poor guy!

I was the same way when I was a kid and know exactly how he feels. I still remember being scared and I still remember several of the recurring nightmares I had. It is hard for me to let him be scared or to let him just lay there and cry out of fear since I know how he feels. I'm not sure what to do now. I'll probably give him a few weeks to hopefully get over the chipmunks and retry his bed again. We'll see how it goes.