Nightmares are made of these

A few weeks ago, I was laying in bed with Linden and Will watching cartoons. Will hands me the remote and it slips out of my hand and hits Linden on the head. Naturally, he cried. I felt horrible. Will laughed.

The next day, we were all back on the bed watching cartoons again. Linden was sleeping peacefully, until he started whining. His bottom lipped quivered and the saddest little noises were coming out of his mouth. Will asked what was wrong and I said maybe Linden was having a nightmare.

Will asked what kind of nightmares babies had. I was stumped. "Getting left by their mother. Not having food when they want it. Having a wet diaper." I had no idea what baby nightmares might be.

Will responded, "Maybe he's dreaming about you hitting him in the head with the remote again." Could be.

I took Linden to the doctor today and he got three shots. For the next 10 hours he whimpered, pouted, cried, shivered - was just generally upset. Each time he'd fall to sleep he'd wake himself up screaming. Bad dreams: and it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were about.

As I lay in bed with my heart-broken baby today, I thought about the origin of nightmares, possible phobias. Really, Linden didn't know that a remote hit him. Or, that I dropped it. As far as he was concerned something dropped from the sky and hit him in the head. Now that is scary.

What about today? Definitely no idea that shots are good for you. Nor does he have the ability to understand what happened. All he knows is that his clothes were taken off, his diaper stripped, then he was placed on a cold metal table (to be weighted and measured) and a stranger held him down and poked him several times.

Yep, I can see what type of fears can be seated in a persons mind; formed before they are old enough to comprehend the circumstances in which the experience took place. Just the pain.

Makes me look back at fears I've outgrown over the years and ponder their true origins.