sleeping in her own bed

[FaeRain]

My daughter, age 6, has not slept through the night in her own bed for the past 4-5 months or so. EVERY night, around 2:00 a.m., I will feel/hear her climbing into our bed. And EVERY night there is a different reason why she can't sleep in her own room. We moved last December, and she has a gorgeous, although kind of big for a 6 y.o., room. And even a new bed since her old bed was the major reason she couldn't sleep for months. She also cannot sleep without her blanky, which she's had from infancy.

A few weeks ago, when her fears were of "alien dreams" I told her to draw a picture of the alien that stole her mouth which she did. Then I burned the picture and flushed it...told her I had banished the alien from bothering her anymore. 30 minutes went by and she's still up....so I put lavendar drops and flower petals all over her bed - still no go. Then I made her a cup of sleepytime tea...all this went on for about 2 hours. She's also had dreamcatchers, which she holds while sleeping.

I know this is not an uncommon problem, so any survival skills would be appreciated!! I still recall vividly nightmares from my childhood, so I don't take this lightly. I just want to sleep on MY side of the bed, not squished in the middle!!

Thanks!
FaeRain

[Lavender]

The only thing I can suggest is to be persistant with bringing her back to her bed each night. She misses the comfort of snuggling up to you. One thing we tried was to give my son one of our t-shirt to wear at night. At first, we did a night time ritual where I gave it a "mommy blessing" so that when I'm not there, the t-shirt will comfort and protect and hug him as if I was there in person. It took a while but it worked for us. This happened when my son was about 4 or 5. He still wears one of our t-shirts to sleep in.

You also mentioned that she has a big room. Is there some way to make it cosier?

[wyshbringer]

When I had nightmares or couldn't sleep the night my mother would only allow me to sleep on the floor in her room. She had a "special" sleeping bag that was to only be used in her room. I got the comfort I needed (hearing my mother breathing and my father snoring) without bothering them. She also gave me a shirt to hold on to.


Wyshbringer

[Danustouch]

One thing that my mother did when I was little, was to give me one of those little disposable aluminum pie pans, and told me to pound on it whenever I started to feel afraid, and she would come to me. For the first couple of nights, she did. I think once I had that reassurance that she would always come to me if I needed her, helped me feel secure enough that I didn't need to call her anymore. Because I stopped hitting the pan on the second or third night.

One thing that I did for my little sister, when she was little (we shared a room, and whenever she would feel scared, she would jump into my bed) was give her a blanket with a bunch of unicorns and rainbows and stars on it. A regular adult blanket. Not a child-size security blanket. And I told her that it was a magick blanket, and as long as she stayed under it at night, nothing could hurt her. I'd make a big production out of tucking her in at night (wonder how I aquired THAT job..heheh), and tucking the blanket all tight around her. I would put on a CD which she loved (kenny loggins return to pooh corner), and fast foward to "the last unicorn" song, and she would always sleep soundly from that point foward :)

[Faery-Wings]

Forgive me if these don't make much sense, just starting a cup of coffee.

There is a Nightmare thread I had started a few weeks ago. My son gets nightmares too, but he does stay in his own bed. He'll come into my room, I'll tell him to go back to bed and he does. I know, I am very lucky. There are some helpful hints in this thread. Here is the link in case you haven't seen it. http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16176

Also, have you cleansed the room since you have moved in? Maybe it needs a good sage (or however you cleanse a room) type cleaning. She might be picking up some energy from the people who lived there previously.

The other thing I can suggest is maybe her sleep cycles are off. I used the Ferber Method when my son was a baby, he had some major sleep issues. You might want to try that, maybe not. I know that is a personal decision. But the part of the Ferber book that explains the sleep cycles is really informative and IMO, helpful to understanding why the child might be getting up at a specific time each nite. Here is a link to the book review on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671620991/qid=1025092225/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-2273095-7413510

I do know that the longer this situation lasts the harder it is to break. And that is good for no one's sleeping.

Hope this helps!

Chris~wishing you all some happy dreams!

[Flar's Freyja]

Sounds like the move may have caused some insecurity. All of my kids went through this at one time or another and they outgrew this stage on their own. All of the above suggestions are good. If all else fails, just let it go and see if she doesn't return to her own bed on her own.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Maybe, like Chrissi said, your daughter is pickin' up energies from the folks who previously lived in your home. (I never thought of that before....but that might also explain all the nightmares I had as a child, and maybe as an adult because we've always moved a bunch.)
Maybe if you tried laying down with her at night, on her bed, in her room. Then as Danustouch suggested, you go to her when she wakes.

My youngest was sleeping fine on his own, and always had, till we had to move in with my folks. The older two boys had a room upstairs and we shared the open basement with BR who was around 2 at the time. The basement was nice and cozy....carpeted, nice furniture, beautiful pictures, the works....but he just couldn't sleep by himself. He always got in bed with us. We now our own home....he's 7 and still gets in the bed with us....probably 3 or 4 nights a week. It's not an issue I can force because the 5 of us live in a single wide, 2 bedroom mobil home. (But, *breathin a sigh of relief* it's ours!) I have always heard that one day children will grow out of the need to sleep with their parents and when they are ready will start sleeping by themselves. So, untill BR has a sleeping space he can call his own, I'll just snuggle up with him, and hold those moments close....cause one day I know he won't need me anymore.