6 years 8 months 4 weeks old

Tonight was one of those nights – crying night. Once in a while, Malaika would claim that she could not sleep because she was thinking about all the bad things and she would have night mares.  It has happened 3-4 times,  I don’t remember since when.  The recent one was when she tried to play a trick by telling Papa that she stuck the flash light batteries in her butt.  Then, Terry told her casually (he didn’t think it was true) that she would die from it. The look on her face was like, shock! She started crying saying that we didn’t tell her that her action would cost her her life.  Of course, Terry quickly calm her down.  Then I told her that recently I read an article on a youngster who swallowed some magnet and almost die from it.  My intention was to warn her not simply put stuff into her body.  That night, she could not sleep, kept on telling me  the story that I told her would made her having nightmare. She kept on crying and then talked and then cried again and talked.  Ding dong ding dong for more than an hour. Towards the end, I was so impatient told her that I would kick her out of the room if she didn’t sleep.  We still didn’t know whether she really put the flash light batteries into her butt of not.

Anyway, tonight episode was just came out of nowhere.  She went to her BFF, Laura birthday party in the afternoon.  Then we came home and after some TV time and dinner, I got them to bed.  Before sleeping, she already told papa that she would have nightmares tonight.  She has been thinking about bad stuff, like monsters and dying and etc.  I thought after this afternoon birthday party, she should be tired enough to doze off in minutes.  Oh no, as soon as I turned off the light, she started crying, citing that she could not sleep. Since we went out the whole afternoon, Kelsey was tired and wanted to sleep.  And then this girl kept on crying and I had to calm her down, and that distracted Kelsey from falling asleep. I didn’t know what her problems were this time.  I told her to think about some happy stuff and the up and coming trips.  There are so many good and fun things that are coming and why she had to think about bad stuff.  She went on saying that her brain was like a machine and could not turn off. Haiz …  Kelsey was still awake and he kept on saying, take away the bad stuff from your mind.  Ha .. he was really sweet.  Then, she wanted me to sleep with her.  Instead, I asked Kelsey to sleep with her, sharing her blanket. That calmed her down.  Then, again crying again, telling me, remember I told her not to hold on to pee because it might cause kidney stones.  I mean, I didn’t forbid her from going to toilet.  I had to ask her to go to the toilet to clear her bladder. Towards the end, I was so tired that  I dozed  off. This episode took more than 30 mins, possibly 45 mins or so.

I don’t know what  the whole problems was.  Was it because she didn’t have enough sleep and was super tired? or perhaps she was over stimulated?  I really hate dealing with this kind of episodes.  It drains me and I was so short tempered.