There Were Three in the Bed

One fateful day in July we checked out a book entitled "Thomas and Friends: The Monster Under the Shed". This book was supposed to teach children that those scary shapes you see and sounds you might hear in the dark are just your imagination and that there is nothing to be afraid of. However, Gabriel latched onto the fact that there are scary shapes and sounds in the dark and decided that he was now very afraid of nighttime.
After a few nights of getting up several times to his shouting or whimpering about the scary tree, scary ghost and scary face he kept seeing in his bedroom we forbade him from reading that book again. He was very upset since he was obsessed with the book and read it to himself several times each day. We also made a plan involving a night light in the shape of a little boy praying. We put the light right next to his bed and told him to look at it when he was scared and pray for help not to be scared. The plan was unsuccessful.
In desperation, we finally agreed to let Gabriel have his brothers sleep in his bed with him so he would not be scared. Crazily enough, it worked! Although, we're not sure how scary shapes and sounds could be less disruptive than two wiggly brothers. Take a look:
This is what they looked like just after they all fell asleep nicely tucked in bed.

Here they are 30 minutes later. Notice how Gabriel does not move, but Elijah and David John seem to be following some sort of migratory instinct.
This is one hour after the previous picture. What are they dreaming about?
The need for three in a bed continued for several nights before Gabe got over his fears. We would frequently check on the boys and find limbs overlapping or body parts over faces. Our toddlers must be very deep sleepers. There were three in the bed, two rolled over, but amazingly none fell out.