Bad Dream

A few weeks ago Maggie flew out of bed screaming in the middle of the night.  She ran to her door crying, "Mommy, Mommy!"  I went in to see what on earth was wrong; nothing was visibly wrong, but she was shaken and distraught. It took awhile to get her calmed down and we concluded that she must have had a nightmare.

The next morning I asked her what her bad dream was about.  She pointed to her back and said, "Dogs bite me back."  Then she started scrubbing her hair and said, "Shampoo, dogs bite back."

Interesting.  Maybe she was dreaming she was washing her hair and some dogs chased her out of the shower?  I thought it was kind of funny and cute at first, but it must have really been traumatizing because she still talks about it.  Her version nowadays doesn't include the shampoo anymore, just dogs biting her back.  A few times she's even added that the dogs bit Mommy's back too.  

Sometimes when she doesn't fall asleep when she's supposed to be napping I ask her why she's not sleeping and she points at her bed and says, "Dogs bite me back."  So then I explain that it was just a dream and that dogs aren't going to bite her back.

The whole thing has surprised me because she really loves dogs and to my knowledge a dog has never been aggressive with her; I'm not sure where she learned that some dogs are mean.

Last night she woke up again crying and when I got her calmed down she repeated it again.  So apparently it's a recurring nightmare and I have no idea what it's stemming from, but it's not funny anymore, it's sad (and a little annoying that she won't nap because she's scared from the dream she had).