Nightmares

Most nights Eloise wakes up, whimpers for a minute and goes right back to sleep. Once and a while though she wakes up screaming from what I can only guess is a nightmare and we rush in to comfort her. Last night was one of those nightmare nights. I'd heard about nightmares in babies and toddlers but never thought much of it since it wasn't something we'd ever experienced. What on earth does a one and a half year old have to have nightmares about? Not enough toys?

Nightmare nights are awful and not just because Eloise wakes up screaming. The screaming is bad, but the process to get Eloise back to sleep again is worse. She falls asleep seconds after I pick her up yet every time I attempt to get her back into her crib she starts to wail. After almost two hours of bouncing, rocking, and bottles I was so frustrated that I put her (wailing) into her crib an pleaded with her to go to sleep. I rubbed her back, promised everything was going to be okay, put on her nightlight and went back to bed myself. She screeeaaamed for fifteen minutes straight but eventually gave in and didn't make a sound until seven o'clock this morning.

I was nervous that Eloise's bout of screaming would lead to her throwing up but it didn't, and although her crying was awful for all of us she woke up cheerful and surprisingly well rested. Maybe it was all a bad dream?