Monday, February 26, 2007

Possessed

Maxfield woke up this morning at 4:30 am. He was having a bad dream and he was screaming and crying. I went into his room to try and calm him down but I couldn't.

"Shhhh. It's okay I am here."

"I wantagoout..." I heard him start but then the rest of the sentance became a garbled mess.

"Shhh Max. We don't want to wake up Wyatt." I stroked his forehead. "I'm here. It's okay."

He started to scream louder and again I could not understand what he was saying. His eyes were closed the entire time.

"Maxfield? what's wrong? Take deep breaths and calm down."

He yelled even louder, "I No wanna calm down. I wanna go to pl...." His snot and tears and the partial sleep state, his and mine, made it imposssible for me to figure out what he was saying. I didn't want his cries to wake Wyatt so I picked Max up and headed down the stairs. Once he was in my arms I could feel him calm down.

I rubbed his back and I asked again, "Max? You had a bad dream. It's okay. Tell me what's wrong?"

Through the small whimpers he said, "I want to go to the playground with Jason and Cora." Jason and Cora are Max's friends that live down the street.

"It was just a dream Max. I'm sure you can play with them later." I said. And at the moment I said it I could feel Max's body tense up for another scream.

He calmly pulled his head off of my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and then screamed at the top of his lungs like he was possessed by the devil, "I want to go to the playground with Jason and Cora."

I actually got a little scared.

We sat on the couch and it took me a few minutes to convince him he was having bad dream and that everything was okay. He finally snapped out of dream like state and asked for some milk.

He just now fell back asleep on the couch, which is a good thing, because I was seriously considering going down the street and waking Jason and Cora.

21 comments:

Michelle said...

Wow, that is rough. It's so hard when they are that little, there is just no reasoning with them, awake or not. I will pray for him.

Effie said...

poor Maxfield...that would be a horrible dream...

BTW--you're such a good dad...

Susie said...

You gotta do what you gotta do. I'm sure Jason and Cora's parents would understand ;)
I hope you were able to get some more sleep, too.

OhTheJoys said...

I can totally relate. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Night terrors are the pits. No way to get them out of it, till they recover themselves. Only had one of mine with the 'terrors' and it wasn't you, William. Remember no ice cream before bed. You're a good Daddy!

ThePapaDog said...

What's so great about Jason and Cora?

Anonymous said...

Are you sure you don't live in PA? My niece's name is Cora. (Or is it just more common than I know?)

Chris Cactus said...

I remember dreams being freaky when I was little. And they really must be. I mean, it must be really tough to understand.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised he did not want to play with Malicki out in the corn.

Stephanie said...

Sounds scary. Did he remember it in the morning?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for not taking susie's advice!

Manda Girl said...

My mom said I did something similar when I was young - right after the exorcist came out - I was sitting up in my bed talking to her (still asleep) and she was terrified that my head was going to start spinning and green vomit would fly everywhere.

Kids are fun.

Kami said...

I wonder if it was a night terror? Nik has had a few of those. Freaky stuff.

Anonymous said...

I usually just go with it. Tell him sure, let's to the playground. If he's really half asleep, he might just go back into the dream.

Stepping Over the Junk said...

I've had that sort of thing with my older one, I have to take her downstairs to the cold tile of the bathroom, turn on ALL the lights and put a wet cloth on her face to wake her up. The last time, she woke up finally and asked if I was gonna give her a bath!

Anonymous said...

WAIT A MINUTE??

How is playing with Jason and Cora a BAD dream? Are my kids that evil?

PS Ignore my wife... Come on down.

kimmyk said...

OMG. I can't breathe I'm laughin' so hard. HA!

Now don't get me wrong, I've had my share of nights like these with my son when he was a toddler and they sucked, but the fact that you sent your wife out into the house to check for spirits and then I can see you sitting on the couch completely freaked out and Max is finally calm asking for milk and you lookin' all around freaked the hell out thinkin' you need to go wake the neighbors kids..the whole thing has me rollin.

Oh I hope y'all get some sleep tonight!

N said...

god bless you people with toddlers...

Unknown said...

Poor kid. Nathan keeps waking up in the middle of the night crying lately, and I think he's had a bad dream, but not a terror. His new habit is to ask for milk when we go in to check on him. He figured out he can manipulate me.

Julie said...

Almost fell off my chair laughing

Lainey-Paney said...

Night terrors.
sleepwalking.

He was probably asleep the whole time he was screaming, talking to you, etc.