Nightmares changed in content after having child

[cloudless]

Hi there, I'm curious if anyone has experienced this. Before having my son (2 years old), nightmares usually consisted of running from someone/something trying to harm me, constantly being late or held up by other people (ie. trying to get to the airport and everything/everyone is causing me to be late and then I miss the flight), and the worst ones were dreams of me encountering animals in severe neglect and desperately trying to save them. I still have the first two types of dreams, but now instead of witnessing animals in distress, I'm dreaming of my son being hurt or abused by others and I'm desperately trying to protect him. I wake up gritting my teeth, sometimes panicking trying to catch my breath. A few times I've been crying in my sleep, but frozen, because I'm locked in the dream state, and my husband realized what was going on because he heard me crying/whimpering and would rub my arms to wake me up. Why the psychological torture? (I don't know if that's rhetorical or a legit question to be honest). I'm new to a PTSD diagnosis and trying to figure things out. I'm wondering if the content of anyone's dreams changed after a certain event or trauma, or in my case, a life altering event like the birth of a child.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Friday]

Oh, my nightmares became INFINITELY more difficult after becoming a mom.

Other parent friends? Confirm that’s totally “normal”. Then we add PTSD to the mix, and too much nightmare fuel, and “normal” became seeeeriously pathological. Shudder.

If it helps at all? My parents (no trauma, great parents, no disorders on board) still periodically reach out to me in the middle of the night… because they had a bad dream… because that’s “normal”. I keep odd hours, so they can, when they’re woken up by a dream about one of my 9-5 siblings? They have to wait until morning to call and make sure they’re alright. And are often up UNTIL they can call. My sibs and I are all in our 40s. This shit? Does. Not. Go. Away.

Kids? Break your heart.

PTSD ups the ampage, but loving someone so much your world would implode without them? Serious nightmare fuel.

 

[JustMeAndMyMind]

Hi there, I'm curious if anyone has experienced this. Before having my son (2 years old), nightmares usually consisted of running from someone/something trying to harm me, constantly being late or held up by other people (ie. trying to get to the airport and everything/everyone is causing me to be late and then I miss the flight), and the worst ones were dreams of me encountering animals in severe neglect and desperately trying to save them. I still have the first two types of dreams, but now instead of witnessing animals in distress, I'm dreaming of my son being hurt or abused by others and I'm desperately trying to protect him. I wake up gritting my teeth, sometimes panicking trying to catch my breath. A few times I've been crying in my sleep, but frozen, because I'm locked in the dream state, and my husband realized what was going on because he heard me crying/whimpering and would rub my arms to wake me up. Why the psychological torture? (I don't know if that's rhetorical or a legit question to be honest). I'm new to a PTSD diagnosis and trying to figure things out. I'm wondering if the content of anyone's dreams changed after a certain event or trauma, or in my case, a life altering event like the birth of a child.

Thank you in advance.

I'm so sorry to hear your nightmares are now including your son, that sounds understandably terrifying. But I think you're quite right that big life events can certainly affect our nightmares.
My ptsd stems from the poor medical care received when my daughter died in childbirth. Weirdly, I don't remember the dreams of her dying very well, (thats more flashbacks whilst awake for me), but I do vividly remember nightmares of my then 14m nephew being attacked by a huge spider in his cot, and my desperate attempts to save him. I hate spiders, but this took my fear of them to a whole new level.
It was horrific having that nightmare, and even today 9yrs on, a massive spider crawled on my pillow and I had a full on meltdown, panic attack, and what I can only describe as an emotional flash back where I don't necessarily "relive" my trauma, but re-feel all the emotions of when my daughter died, and they hit me like a tidal wave.
My sister had a very difficult and dangerous birth with her first son, and her fiance had nightmares about it for at least the first 6 months, so I think it's safe to say that 1) it's quite normal for parents to have nightmares about their children, and 2) ptsd sadly means we're maybe more likely to have these nightmares. I guess it makes sense, as loving parents, you will forever want to protect your child from all harm, so it's normal that they become part of a nightmare about needing to protect them.

I hope you have found something to ease your struggle with this, sending you love and support x