Thursday, November 20, 2008




Ever looked at a sleeping baby and wondered what she was dreaming about?

I’ve wondered since I first held Liana in my arms.

But this little girl, who is so full of joy and belly laughs and curiosity and genuine verve during her waking hours, is haunted by nightmares every night. And night terrors. She wakes up screaming at least once per night. Sometimes twice. Or three times. Or more.

It is a battle to get her to sleep. And given that it seems terrible things happen to her in her sleep, I do not wonder why.

As her vocabulary has grown, she is suddenly starting to tell me about the content of her dreams. So far this week, I held her in my arms at midnight while she buried her little face in my shoulder and screamed “NOOOOOO!!!! Sage is coming. COMING. COMING. NOOOOOO!!!” The cat? Chasing her? She is the one who chases him. But I guess he gets his revenge in her dreams. Poor Liana. Poor Sage. Honestly, I guess I understand why he inhabits her nightmares. An aging indoor cat, with a simple life before her arrival in the household, he is the first living being who has ever been really mean to her. As she was learning to walk, she would barrel over to him and try and hug him. Or press her finger against his little nose. And he would hiss and swat with his declawed paw and run away. And she would weep. But that was at first. They are friendly now. She likes to pet him, and he tolerates it. Mostly.

The second nightmare of the week that she has been able to tell me about involved a toy robot who was trying to steal her orange. We don’t have a toy robot. We saw the movie Wall E, about a robot. And we have a book about a robot with a pet hedgehog. No oranges involved in either story. And no one tries to steal stuff from her. Well, maybe at daycare. But she worships the big kids, and they are very kind to her. Oddly, though, she is very possessive of her stuff…. often clutching a toy or treat, and exclaiming “NO! MINE!!” if someone comments or comes close.

Hmmm.

At some point I’ll write more about sleep. Or lack thereof.