We just figured out yesterday that Monica has been waking up scared in the night and turning to Kelly for comfort. Monica is a silent cryer so we never hear her (unless she falls out of bed). Kelly opened up to us and explained that Monica has been waking her up in the night ‘miedo,’ then coming over to Kelly’s bed and hitting her to get her attention. We had no idea this was happening. So, we explained to Monica that if she ever wakes up scared or sad she can either call for mami and papi (we sleep with a monitor next to our ear) or she can come into our room and wake us up. We told her that as soon as we hear she is scared or sad we will come running, give her a hug, stay with her until she is feeling better, and be there for her as much as she needs. She was surprised to hear that, but we believe she was quite relieved. Last night she woke up 3 times and called for us and we came right in and comforted her. She went back to sleep immediately.
I write about this because I never would have thought pre-adoption that a child wouldn’t know that he/she could wake up his/her parents for help when scared in the night. I was sad myself to realize that she had been keeping her fear from us, as if she thought we wouldn’t comfort her. Thank God she believed us and called out to us last night so that we could help build her trust in us; that she would know that we will always take care of her. If I had known pre-adoption that this would be a misunderstanding with my children I would have been sure to explain right away that they can always count on us to comfort them, day and night, without fear.
Hopefully they will both get a good night sleep tonight because their first day of school is tomorrow!!! Yay.
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