Last night as I was preparing to go to bed I heard some whimpering. It was a familiar sound. One that I have become accustomed to over the last decade or so. I had been down on the computer checking emails so I headed upstairs to where the noise was coming from. There squeezed behind a floor lamp was my daughter Camryn. She was making a crying sound and certainly looked disoriented and upset. However I knew that I needed to approach her in a calm way. You see she was sleepwalking and the crying was part of her dream. Both my children are nocturnal wanderers. They don't sleepwalk very often, maybe once a month but it is not uncommon for Cammie to be tearful during these episodes.
The first time it happened was when Andrew was about 2 years old and I was pregnant with you know who. He had fallen asleep on the couch in the evening and I just hadn't moved him into the bedroom yet. Suddenly he sat straight up as if wide awake and said something about how the car was yellow. Then he quietly laid back down on the couch as if nothing had happened. We didn't have a yellow car so I asked him to repeat it but he was already back asleep. Well in reality he had always been asleep but I didn't know that at the time. Often it's very hard to tell. Both kids will have their eyes wide open, come right up to you, and talk as if it were an everyday thing. The only way to tell is how they behave after that point. Drew will walk into my room at night, say something, and then go back to bed. He always says it with conviction as it it were some great philosophical words that I should write down but by the time I am awake enough to realize he is already climbing back under his warm covers. To date I have never been able to make out a complete sentence from him. I can usually gather the general gist of what he says but never the whole message. Often it's random and confusing....or maybe it's just me that is random and confusing leading to his profound words being lost forever. I hope it's not the solution to world peace because then I'd feel really bad about missing it.
So finding Camryn squished behind the lamp wasn't that unusual for her. I've found her asleep in all sorts of places in the house. Sometimes on the floor or the couch in the living room but some of the more amusing were sitting at the kitchen table, on the bottom step of the stairs, on an empty shelf in the bookcase, and of course now behind the lamp. Because I was awake and heard the whimpering I was able to get to her before she closed her eyes again. She was looking upset so I asked her what was wrong. She tends to stumble through a conversation when she is sleeping. She will stutter and seem somewhat confused. She can answer basic questions although sometimes in interesting or nonsense kind of ways. Drew on the other hand is just matter of fact about it. He will say something once and then don't bother wasting your breath. He won't clarify or repeat himself. So I asked Camryn what was wrong and she manages to get out that she "can't find it?" I ask her what "it" is and she looks even more confused than before. She continues to randomly talk about "it" but I never really found out what "it" actually is. I asked her if she wanted to go back to bed and she said "yes". If that's not proof that she was sleeping I don't know what is. Really, what kid would want to go to bed after all? I carefully walked her back upstairs to her room. She laid down and said "okay, she can come". Look at me, I seem to have just negotiated that "she" can come. I don't know who she is or where I talked Camryn into taking her but pat on the back for me. A few fist pumps and I say to myself "I deserve cookies for that". I go back down stairs and treat myself to my well earned treat.
So far I've been lucky that neither kid has done anything too nutty. I hear horror stories of people going outside in their PJ's which in our wonderful Calgary winters could be very dangerous. Neither kid has eaten anything or crawled into the bath tub or otherwise gotten themselves into a sticky situation but of course as their mother I worry. So far the only challenging thing is the waking up to a child's silhouette in my dimly lit room. A child who is standing over me starring intently at me. If you've never experienced this sort of thing let me say I suspect the adrenaline rush is similar to bungee jumping or sky diving. Nothing says wake up and fight for your life like someone unexpectedly starring at you while you sleep. I have a weird fear of being watched so even though these are my own children watching me sleep it's still a little disconcerting. Don't bother asking me where I got this fear from because I have no idea. It's not like I had any siblings who did this to me. It's not like I have ever had anyone (that I know of) stalk me. Alright well there was that one guy that I met online a few years ago that emailed me pictures of his cat dressed up and all his baby pictures for a over a year despite repeated requests to stop. And no we never even met for coffee. Can you say socially inappropriate? As unusual and creepy as that guy was I had this phobia long before him. Where this fear actually came from I'll never know but I must say waking up randomly with someone watching you does not seem to help a person get past it.
So if in my old age I am a little bit off my rocker, talking about yellow cars, showing up at the bed sides of my fellow nursing home residents to watch them as they sleep, and regaling tales of how I was an ace negotiator for unnamed girls going to unknown places please just calmly walk me back to my room and tuck me in bed. I'll be fine and won't remember a thing in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment