I finally used those feathers!!

[Ditty]

NO Debz you are absolutely correct!  The dreamcatchers made now WERE made by Chippewa in the early 60's and they caught on.  And as you said many now don't like it because there are so many out there made by non-native folks.  Some tribes use them and some don't .  you are absolutely right on!

[Jadesmom]

I think I read somewhere that way back when, they would hang a real spider web on each side of a babies bed to catch the "bad dreams" The earliest dreamcatchers....

[BuffaloParrot]

Wow Ditty, I love that!!  I am going to make a HUGE one with all our flocks feathers on it. party

[wishforabird]

so it is based somewhat in truth, but then it got commercialized all to crap.  my sister made one for me, & I have one for each of my kids. my son after his stay in the ICU for a week (they are up night and day on that ward for obvious reasons, it must have been endless torture for him :( )  had HORRIBLE nightmares for almost a year. I gave him one and told him it would get most of them, I told him to think happy funny things and they would be able to fill his mind so much, the bad stuff would not have as much room to get in.  Dumbo's feather I guess, but it worked. 

*he would not go anywhere near anyone is scrubs (he would have a hysterical terror fit!) even if they were in the grocery store shopping after their shift. He would scream and cry and try like hell to pull me away from the "horrible monster", he was absolutely terrified.  I would explain he was recently released from the ICU and they would nod in understanding.  He was about 3 so he had no reasoning ability to know that they were not going to touch him/hurt him. 

anyway, the point of that rambling tangent was to say that it is cool to know the history of them and they are beautiful pieces of art, even if they were overdone in some places.  and they worked for us :)

[steptoe91(tozie)]

wow, poor kid. that must have been miserable. they wouldnt let you stay with him? that would be misery for both of you i imagine. poor baby. at least the dream catcher worked for him. isnt it great how people can believe something so completely that it works even when it shouldnt?
Drew was in the hospital at about the same age but i stayed with him round the clock. i think i went home once for a shower but Lee stayed with him while i was gone. it wasnt icu, but he had  a private room right by the nurse's station cause he had staph infection of the soft tissue in his chin and neck. he swelled up and they thought his airway was gonna swell shut. he was supposed to stay for 3 days for IV antibiotics, but when he leaped off the bed and ran across the room to chase a toy car ( with an IV in! if Lee hadnt ran behind him pulling the IV pole he'd have ripped it out!) the nurses convinced the dr. that he was fine to go home! lol!

[2ndChanceJr]

That is great Ditty, I have onestarted, I just need to finish it now. Will post pics if I ever get around to finishing it.

[wishforabird]

wow, poor kid. that must have been miserable. they wouldnt let you stay with him? that would be misery for both of you i imagine. poor baby. at least the dream catcher worked for him. isnt it great how people can believe something so completely that it works even when it shouldnt?
Drew was in the hospital at about the same age but i stayed with him round the clock. i think i went home once for a shower but Lee stayed with him while i was gone. it wasnt icu, but he had  a private room right by the nurse's station cause he had staph infection of the soft tissue in his chin and neck. he swelled up and they thought his airway was gonna swell shut. he was supposed to stay for 3 days for IV antibiotics, but when he leaped off the bed and ran across the room to chase a toy car ( with an IV in! if Lee hadnt ran behind him pulling the IV pole he'd have ripped it out!) the nurses convinced the dr. that he was fine to go home! lol!

my husband stayed there the entire time, I would come during the day and he would sleep on the couch in the family waiting room.  He had "night shift". then I had to go home :( I had a newborn at the time, and because she was so young I had to leave once visitors started trickling in to protect her from catching anything, and I was nursing her round the clock.  their Godfather would come with me in the mornings to the ICU and hold the baby in the family waiting room while I looked after my son in the ICU, he would page me when she needed to nurse, then I would run back.  I felt so torn leaving him there at night and taking the baby home, I wanted to be in both places. thank the LORD I have such an awesome husband and he rocks as a daddy! I knew he would be well looked-after while I was gone...even though all he wanted was mommy.  it was a long couple of weeks.  I have never been so scared in my whole entire life, the doctors didn't think he was going to make it.  and this was Hopkins Hospital.  there is no way I would leave a kid there overnight. I would sleep on the floor if I had to. the bummer about the ICU is there are no chairs, they can't give you one because if the kid crashes, they have to be able to rush in RIGHT NOW. so you lean forward and lean on the bed to help you stay off your feet a little. long 10 hour days like that. at least they validate parking for parents!  there was a newborn in the next bed who had just undergone open heart surgery, and he was so delicate they couldn't even close his chest, it had the surgical "saran wrap" over it so it wouldn't dry out. The baby crashed during the night one time and the doctors were all over him, they were amazing he told me later, and they brought the kid back.  My husband still has nightmares about that, he thought this kid was going to die right in front of him..and it could have so easily been ours.  His name was Austin, and he was still fighting when we were transferred to the intermediate unit.  I think about him still, and wonder how he is.

[steptoe91(tozie)]

wow! i got chill bumps reading that.
talk about a tough time. i'm glad everything turned out okay for ya'll.

[wishforabird]

we are groovy now :)  in fact, it made us closer as a family and as a couple. we went throught something that stressful, and we pulled together. 
it was an awesome sight.    and as a bonus, my son does not remember it anymore, enough years have gone by and he was young enough. whew! he has been to the hospital twice since then, and suffered no ill effects, so I guess we handled his fears correctly. I swear, I wish I had a manual!

[Jadesmom]

Your husband sounds like a very special guy......   

[BPMar]

You have a great family Wishy! 
Great job on the dream catcher Ditty!  I was going to make one a while back....I should put it on my "to-do" list.  We do have some cool Native American artifacts around the house.  D's father has gotten him quite a few items and I also made a wall hanging for us when we got married that says "Shield Us Forever" in the Lakota language.  An aunt whom I have never met has an original tomahawk given to my GGG grammy from the Lakota tribe in S. Dakota.  I have never even seen it.    It sits gathering dust in her attic from what I hear.

Spider Woman.....Asibikaashi

[wishforabird]

too cool Mar! maybe it will see the light of day and you can look at it.  my sister made the one she gave me (dreamcatcher) and it is so pretty, the web part in the middle I think would be the hardest part? you crochet though, you could probably do it easily, I would love to see what you come up with, maybe you could incorporate a feather from each fid! that would be cool!

[patti3birds]

I have Cherokee running through my veins, so does My Husband Preston. He can be in the sun and get red one day and the next be dark as ever...My skin is too Scottish

Sounds Nice, Ditty.
Great Story, wishy....Wow...yeah Im just now getting around to reading the story...