Primal Scream
Last night, I went to sleep early — by 9:30. I had a 6:40am flight to LA today, so I needed my beauty sleep.
I was awoken — along with Lauren and Charlie — by a primal scream of unadulterated terror, coming from Anya’s room (and amplified over the monitor). It was 1:58am.
It was truly scary to hear Anya that frightened. I went into her room.
I hate going into her room when she is in a very unhappy state. You know how when you’re feeling sad, and someone who cares comes to give you a hug, and that act finally sets off the waterworks? Sometimes, stepping into Anya’s room when she very upset can actually make her even MORE upset for a moment. Now that the comforter is here, she can REALLY show how upset she is.
She was upset enough last night that I’m not sure whether an increase was possible when I stepped in. But it was chilling to see her standing, tear-soaked, and screaming when I walked in.
Anya indicated at least one of her “friends” (stuffed creatures) was missing. “Put it back there!” she insisted. But a quick (sleepy) floor-check and in-crib-creature-count showed that everyone was present and accounted for.
When I proved that to Anya (it took some time), she asked me to rock her. I did, and she quickly calmed down. But as “Baby Mine” reached its conclusion, she said softly, “I want to go Daddy’s bed. I want to go to Mommy and Daddy’s bed with Daddy.”
(In my sleepy stupor, I checked with Lauren over the monitor about whether this was a good idea. I was worried — and told Anya — that my early rise, less than two hours from then, could wake her if she joined us in our room. Anya wasn’t swayed, and Lauren correctly declared that I should heed Anya’s request.)
Anya came into our room and fell asleep with us fairly quickly. I thought to myself, “Boy, I hope I can calm down from that heart-pounding experience and get some more sleep before my 4am wake-up call. It would suck if I stayed awake now and didn’t catch a few extra Z’s. I hope this train of thought stops pretty quick, because man, that would really stink if…”
At 3:30am, I gave up and got out of bed.
I miss my girls!
