My son Matthew is almost three and a half years old and is starting to have a very wild imagination. He is at the age where he wakes up having nightmares and bad dreams. I haven't been sleeping too well at night because he keeps waking me up crying. It's been very hard to calm him down or to show him that there are no monsters and nothing to be afraid of.
I came up with the idea a few nights ago to do a "Monster Check!" I go around his bedroom with him and we check in each closet, he has two, to make sure that there are no monsters. Then we look in the toy box, no monsters. Last, we look under his bed and ask him if there are any monsters underneath his bed, and he says no. Then he gets into bed with no issues and goes to bed just fine. Tonight he had to do his "Monster Check" before we read stories, and then again after we were done reading books to him. The past two nights, tonight will be the third, he hasn't woke up at all! How cool is that!!! I am so glad that I thought to do this and show him that there is nothing to be afraid of! I hope that the "Monster Check" works for a while anyways. I really could use more sleep, and less waking up in the middle of the night several times because he is scared.
Now, if I can just figure out how to get my 19 month old daughter to sleep through the night with her teething going on, we'll be set! (She just got tooth #5, her first molar. She has her 4 front teeth and one molar, so her gums are very sore and swollen. She keeps waking up at night throwing tantrums, and she won't stop until I nurse her.)
