  Bear’s Night Terrors This morning, I went into the boys' bedroom to wake up Bear (Bug was already up). I found Bear in the bottom bunk (he sleeps in the top one), sitting up, literally freaking out. He was waving his arms in front of his face crying "The room is trashed" over and over. I sat on the bed and held him in my arms and tried to comfort him. He was still asleep. Then he started saying incoherent things about the monster. I called for Sharky who came in and tried to help me comfort Bear. It took a while but Bear finally woke up, shaken and still upset.
He had dreamed of a monster coming into the room and destroying everything. Now I have heard of night terrors - strange dreams that occur primarily with young boys. Bear has had a few odd ones, but only as a very small toddler, where he would wake up in the middle of the night screaming his head off for no apparent reason - not crying mind you, but screaming in terror. He would always be fast asleep when it occurred and like this morning, would take a while to wake up.
(14th) Well, it happened again last night. I went over some friends house for a little bit (they had a little birthday party for me) and Bear had another episode while I was gone. Sharky said that this one lasted almost 15 minutes before Bear could be calmed down enough to sleep again. Even then, he just laid on the couch with his dad until he fell asleep. This has really gotten Sharky upset - never has experienced this before (neither have I). We had thought that this might have been tied in with his fever, yet during the episode last night, he wasn't feverish at all.
(16th) Bear is doing better. Night before last, he had another one. Woke me up as he barreled down the bunk and came flying into our bedroom screaming "I had a bad dream" over and over. He really responds to touch. I pulled him into bed between Sharky and I and practically laid on him - sort of like bundling a baby?
He calmed down almost immediately and was able to speak about it in an almost rational manner. The dream was that he walked to school on his own and a monster (body of a cat, head of a bird with razor sharp teeth like a shark) ripped him to pieces. As he talked about it, I could see the light come into his eyes as he realized the dream was about his fear of walking to school on his own. When he stated that, I agreed and assured him that we wouldn't do that until he was a lot older.
We impressed upon him that his 'guardian angels' could help him battle bad dreams. Also, because he is a huge fan, that he could always carry Poke'mon balls with him and capture the monster if need be. He actually slept all the way through last night. (17th) He has done very good - no dreams last night. No fever either. I really am starting to thing those went hand in hand. Never did before, but now that he's getting older... 
