Friday, October 23, 2009

Annika's Bee

So about a week ago, Annika wakes up at 2am and starts screaming about a bee. We run downstairs and calm her crying, but she keeps insisting there is a bee and says it over and over. Finally she asks for her sunglasses (which she has not worn for 3 months at least) and when we put them on her, she calms down and goes back to sleep.

Every single nap or bedtime since then, right when its time for her to go to bed, she starts crying and saying there is a bee. Over and over and right now she is punctuating it with screams from her bed. Naptimes are easier, I just say "there's no bee" about 20 times and then leave her in there. She only cries 3-5 minutes. At night she'll cry for 15 minutes or more sometimes.

We've asked her where it is, many many times. Usually its by her door somewhere, but tonite she pointed at the top of her dresser, where there was quite clearly no bee, and said over and over "Bee!" "Bee!" "Right there!", crying and distraught. We've faked killing the bee, we've tried to reason with her, looked everywhere for it, all to no avail.

It is so frustrating and I wish I understood what was going on in her little brain. All I can figure out is that she doesn't want to go to bed and pins her emotions on the imaginary bee so that she can express herself. It seems like the bee is the worst on days I know she had a long late nap and might not be too tired.

We were having sleep issues before this happened too, she used to be the easiest child to get into bed. From about 7 mos - 2 years we just laid her down and she went to sleep as long as she had a teddy bear or some toy she had picked out. Ever since she's turned two, she's gotten super picky and has a list of about 10-15 things she wants before she can go to sleep. We've gotten tough lately and made her pick just 2 things, and kyle has gone in to discipline her when she gets out of bed crying. Then, just when we thought we were making progress....the imaginary bee appears.

Blech.

4 comments:

Shauna said...

Okay, I'm sorry...but this is so funny. I mean, it sounds totally lame, but it's making me laugh. So thanks for that. :)

and good luck finding the bee. I'm sure it's there somewhere.......... :P

Kelsie said...

I suppose there are worse imaginary friends that she could dream up....I must saw though, wow, she is one smart girl! I wish I'd thought of that when I was her age. But my apologies to you guys---that sounds rough!

BrenV said...

She didn't try that on me when I put her down on Monday, just the usual list of things she needed in bed with her, no crying either. Who knows what she is thinking!

Unknown said...

A week ago, one of my coworkers reported that her daughter was starting to wake up in the middle of the night from nightmare about a 3 foot tall bee. Maybe there is a mysterious dream-bee invading the dreams of children across W. Washington? I'll ask Seth about it and let you know.