Nightmares and Prayers

A few days ago, around Midnight, Sarah came into our room and said "Molly is screaming". I got up out of bed groggily and Mary was shortly behind me. Molly was indeed screaming/crying hysterically in her crib. After trying to talk to her and calm her down, she started yelling "I want out" or something to the effect that made it clear that she did not want to be in her crib anymore. So, I scooped her up and carried her out into our front room and sat in the Lazy-boy recliner and she sat on my lap while she calmed down. She seemed pretty worked up and upset about something. Mary and I talked to her for a little bit and she seemed to have a low-grade fever, or at least be very warm. She started to talk about a "Bad Cat" so we figured that she had some kind of a nightmare. Poor girl! She seemed to be trying to tell us more about the Bad Cat or her nightmare but it was hard to discern. She was calmed down by this point and seemed content to be cuddling with me. However, any mention of going back to bed was filled with instant resistance and an emphatic "Nooooo!" I tried to offer to sing to her but she just kept wanting to talk and cuddle. Things seemed stable and calmed down enough that Mary went back to bed at this point, having not felt well that day. After her jabbering and me trying to respond to or discern what she was saying, offers of singing a song being turned down and mentions of going back to bed being strongly opposed, we just sat there quietly and rocked for a little bit. I had the thought that we could say a prayer, since she has been doing that a lot more recently (prayers for meals, family prayers and sometimes her own bedtime prayer). I asked if she would like to do this and she agreed. We said a prayer, with her repeating 1-2 words at a time. This is what I remember us saying in the prayer:

"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for Jesus, He loves me. Thank You for my family. Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and Sarah and Nathan and Jane and Me and Maxy (our dog). Thank you for my crib. Thank you for my blankets and my pillow and my animals. Thank you for my room to sleep in. Father, please help me to sleep good, to not be scared of the Bad Cat. Help me to feel safe and happy. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Upon finishing the above prayer, Molly's response was "Again Daddy". We repeated the above prayer again. She said "Again Daddy". It was repeated. I asked if she felt better, she said "Yes, Again Daddy." So we said the prayer a fourth time. After this prayer I asked again if she was feeling better and she said yes. I asked if I could sing her a song and she said "yes". So I started singing all three verses of "I Am a Child of God". She knew some of the words in the chorus and sang some of those words along with me, albeit a little delayed :) We finished this and she said "Again Daddy". After we sang this song a second time I asked if we could go say good night to Mommy and she said "Yes". So we went to say goodnight to Mary and she wanted to say her prayer again, so we knelt next to Mommy who was in bed and said the prayer again. She then gave her Mom a hug and kiss, said goodnight and went to sleep. She didn't wake up at all again that night and went to sleep seemingly peacefully.

I was grateful for this experience. It was a special one for me with my little Molly who is so attached to her Daddy. She was so sweet and I loved being able to be her father during this experience and was grateful that I could help her turn toward our Father for comfort as well. She found comfort in a combined effort of my physical arms and heart and his less-tangible but no less real presence. I am grateful for the reminder of the power and influence of prayer, in particular but also hymns that can bring peace and comfort in times of distress. I am grateful for the reminder of the need to turn to this limitless and always-available resource in my life and for the lives of those around me every day.

Interestingly, as I was typing up this experience this morning, Nathan came out of his bedroom and volunteered that he had a nightmare last night and said a prayer to Heavenly Father to help him with the nightmare and went back to bed. He reported that he had a "good dream" after that and when he woke up this morning he said that he said aloud "Thank You, Heavenly Father" as he got up out of bed.

I'm grateful that I shared the experience that I had with Molly with my kids. I'm grateful that they (sometimes) listen and follow.

I Need to Take My Kids Camping...

Observe:



These are pictures of my kids in our backyard. They have built a "fire" (complete with a less than adequate fire ring) and sitting around their fire roasting pine-cones. They were pretending their pine-cones were marshmallows or hot-dogs, but when they were pretending to eat the bigger pine-cones, they were pretending it was corn on the cob. Fun and creative kids.

Molly Svea Hamm

Molly joined our growing family on 4/30/2010 at 12:47 pm (just didn't want to join us on her older sister's birthday!). She weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches in length. Mary had her 40 week (exactly) appointment earlier in the day and she was 5 cm's dilated, though she hadn't really had any contractions or anything that would signify active labor. But given that we were only in the hospital for 12 mins before Jane was born, our Doc told Mary that she wasn't going to be sleeping in her own bed tonight. So I worked that day, we went out to dinner together and we checked into the hospital at 6 pm that evening. Because Mary wasn't in active labor, we did some walking for the first couple of hours. Because she had tested + for Strep B she had to be on an antibiotic every four hours. After her second round of antibiotic (started at about 10 pm) she was still just dilated to a 6 or 7 and her dilation was a little off-center, or something. Our doc recommended that Mary spend 10-15 mins on her hands and knees to assist with proper alignment and hoping that it would get things moving along. Up to this point Mary had had some contractions but nothing that she couldn't walk/talk through. Anyway, the hands and knees thing worked. Mary got up from that and began to have some more regular contractions and around 12:15 they started picking up speed and it was clear that things were moving forward progressively.

I was in a reflective mood at this point, watching my wife labor amazingly well and seeming almost in complete control of her body and this labor process. I was so proud of her and impressed at her ability to be so focused and in control. What a contrast from our first one! After our first one I was wishing that I could be back in the old days when the dad's weren't allowed in the room. But this time, I was wishing that I could do more to help her and to feel engaged in this process. I tried to be supportive verbally for her and was informed at one point that it was helpful and at another point that I needed to stop. She knows what she does and doesn't want during the transition point of the labor and delivery process. Anyway, I absolutely loved watching her and I had a good 30 mins of marveling at the amazingness of my wife and her remarkable awareness of her body. She got on the bed to push when she felt that "these are pushing contractions". She pushed through one contraction and on the second one little Molly joined this world and our family. What a beautiful little girl.

I went home around 7:15 am to spell our friend who had put our kids to bed and spent the night at our home. The kids were excited to hear about this little girl joining our family. I made waffles for the kids for breakfast and got them ready for the day. I then took them over to a friends house for a few hours and went to check on Mary. [It is very nice to live about 4 mins from the hospital]. We spent the next few hours together and then I went home and got the kids and brought them home to get them some lunch. We then went to the hospital so some very excited kiddos could see their new little sister.
Here is Sarah holding little Molly. She has been such an excited big sister and wants to hold her and spend time with her a lot. She has been a big helper and I'm sure she will continue to be.

Here is Sarah holding Molly with Nathan. Nathan is pretty excited about his sister and interested in her but not all engaged in wanting to hold her or be all that involved with her yet.
Jane, on the other hand, cannot get enough of her. The picture above is a perfect depiction of their current relationship. The best way to describe it is regularly concerted effort to be pawing or touching her sister in some way. If you don't know where she is, she is probably standing innocently next to a now rocking swing. She is constantly touching her face and head. She loves to point out her eyes, ears, mouth and nose. She's a doll and so excited about her younger sister. See below.


The name was a little bit of a dilemma and much more difficult to decide. Our three other children had names long before they joined our family. This one we just couldn't come to any agreement. Eventually, I kind of won out. We each liked all of our name ideas for this little girl but couldn't decide. I have really liked the name Molly for the last 4-5 years and that is what I really wanted to name her, plus it seemed right to me. I absolutely love her middle name, Svea. I don't really know how to explain by type how it is pronounced, but this is my best guess at a pronunciation: suh (like duh) - vay - uh . The 'suh' sound is really short and may not be completely sounded out. It's a Swedish name, like Sven, if that helps. I don't really know if that makes sense but that's okay. Anyway, we love our little girl and are trying to come to grips with the fact that we are the parents of four children. in our family. and they are ours. and we are responsible for them. four kids. ours.

We'll see how this adjustment and transition goes. Welcome to our family Molly Svea! We love you!