A Hard Night's Day

DeLaynie did not sleep well last night. This, of course, led to a bad night of sleep for Edwin and myself. She was very unhappy and squirmy. We didn't understand why, so Edwin took her back to her bed (she comes to the gate at our room until some sleep-deprived individual lifts her over to see if our bed is a better location for her).

She always talks in the middle of the night, usually some script from Dora the Explorer ("Look, Dora! It's the rock. Do you see the rock? I see the rock. Yeah! There it is.). Last night, though, she wasn't just saying it. She was screaming it. After a few minutes of this, while Edwin and I were praying that she'll give it up and go to sleep, she got up and came to our gate, crying.

I tried a few other ideas, like feeding her, but she didn't care for it. She ended up back in our bed. After a few squirmy minutes, she finally faded to sleep. Then we discovered what was causing the problem. "No, no,no!" She screamed randomly and threw out her arms in the universal stop sign (flat palm out). She was having nightmares. Obviously, this caused an instantaneous change from annoyance to intense sympathy. Of course she didn't want to be alone in her completely dark room with all of the bad things that were filling her little head! Who would?

We all resumed our normal sleep a little before dawn. Now we're back up and back to packing. We weren't edgy enough without a giant interruption in our sleep last night, so DeLaynie's imagination came to the rescue. Kids: gotta love 'em!