More Bed Wars

Sadly, not the sort of romantic bed wars one would hope for on Valentine’s Day.

Alex has managed to start ripping apart his duct tape mattress.  And Nathan spent a night in our bed while I slept in his room.  Not exactly stunning parenting victories.

This morning when we went into Alex’s room, he had managed to break through the duct tape covering and was ripping apart some of the tarp.  I’m going to reseal it but I suspect it will just get torn open again.  Right now, I don’t have any more brilliant ideas on how to protect his bed from overnight leakage.  The only option I can think of is to remove the mattress entirely and put a thick duvet down on the bedstead.  I would need several but they could be washed.  We’ll see how the patching holds up.

Nathan woke up around midnight, soaked and terrified.  I changed the bed and him and he was asking to come to our bed.  He kept talking about the closet doors being open.  I closed them and lay down with him, hoping I could get him to settle, but no luck.  I was so exhausted after about a half-dozen nights of very short sleep that I wasn’t thinking straight.  After half an hour, I gave in and brought him into our room and settled him on my side of the bed.  Then I went back to his room to sleep.

I think I messed up that decision.  Yes, he was upset and frightened and I think it’s important to reassure him so that the anxiety doesn’t escalate.  The only way to get rid of nightmares in young children is to convince their subconscious that they and their home is absolutely, one hundred percent safe.  But we spent a long time getting him out of our room and I should have continued to stay with him until he fell asleep.  Hopefully no long term damage.