Sleep-Walking

Shane startled us when he sleepwalked into the room a little before 10 PM. He was shivering, muttering, and climbed up on the couch.

It took us a little bit to realize he wasn't really coherent or conscious. I started asking him to count how many fingers I was holding up and he would stare and shiver. His jaw would clatter a bit and then he'd say something else.

We put him back to bed afterward, and I started to search the blog. A year and a half ago and somewhere around three years ago he had some incidents with night terrors and waking dreams. So much time had passed, I'd forgotten. The posts jogged my memory and we felt better about it the next morning. 

Ironically, Carrie had her own bout a couple of nights before. She woke up and said something about getting out of the house and leaped out of bed (and falling on her knee). I wasn't asleep yet and sat up, surprised. I followed her to the garage door and stopped her from going outside. That's when she says her memory starts. 

It's the only time in 10 years I've ever seen her do anything of the like and then Shane did it a couple of days later.

It's an odd set of memories.

Sleep Schedules

Carrie went from early to bed and late to rise....to late to bed and early to rise....to early to bed and early-early to rise.

If that confused you, imagine how I feel!

Bucket hasn't helped. There have been a few mornings she's put a paw on Carrie's nose to wake her up at 4 AM for pets.

Bedtime Story Slack

We lost the bedtime story habit. It's time to get it back with Harry Potter.

Draft Posts That Were Never Published: Sleep (2012)

Getting the right amount of sleep is an elusive goal. I find myself typing this journal at a time I would not normally type.

I am awake.

Shane is asleep.

Normally, I don't roll out of bed in the morning until Shane sings out his morning song. My ears tend to pick up his chant between 5:30 and 6. On a rare occasion, my son will permit me to stay under the covers until 6:30.

I find myself in the curious position of being awake, waiting for my son to awake at any moment, and thinking about sleep. I have always been 'inertia driven.' When I'm awake, I normally don't want to go to sleep. I can always find something interesting to do. Maybe it goes with being ADHD, but I'm easily entertained. When I'm asleep, I never want to wake up. I can function easily on 6 or less hours, but I do not rouse willingly. As a teenager, I remember I could sleep for ten hours, be woken up by any number of reasons (an unapproving Nana, an alarm clock, visiting cousins, etc), and then roll over and go back to sleep.

.....and then I started to relate to something about Grandpa Vern's ability to nap because, of "clean living and a clear conscience." I'm honestly, not sure where I was going with it.

I'm glad that I average more than 6 hours of sleep a night now. Maybe that makes me more sane. I probably average a little over 7 hours now.

Monitored

Thursday: Carrie's parents forgot to send home part of the monitor for Shane's room.

"He'll be fine," I said. "He's got to learn to get up and come to us if he has a problem anyway."



Saturday: The monitor in the mail. Carrie didn't ask; I didn't tell. Why stop progress?



Monday: Tooth extraction day. The recovery instructions noted Shane may drool pink overnight.



Monday night: I congratulated myself on our graduation from a monitor. I hoped we'd start to get more sleep. Carrie's notorious for startling awake sometimes. I listen intently to see if I need to handle anything and pray she won't wake.



Monday night late: Carrie startled awake and said, "What about the monitor?!" "It's fine," I said. "He knows to come and get us if he needs us."



Tuesday Morning: Shane cried and called for me at 6:15 AM. I jogged over to check on him. He told me what was wrong when I came in.

"You think you're going to throw up?" I asked.

He cried and nodded.

"Where do you go to throw up?"

"The bathroom...," Shane sniffled.

"Why don't you go to the bathroom?"

And the spell was broken. Half-asleep, I deduced what happened.

Shane had drooled. Just like the dentist said. He thought he was going to hurl. Shane's stomach hurt, because he was hungry. Last night, he said he was full and then tried to ask for food he couldn't have immediately after.

I don't know how long he cried before I woke up. If I'd heard him sooner. he (and I) may have gone back to sleep (Unless my reaction time was really that good).

There's a learning curve to independence.

I still haven't hooked the monitor up. I figure we'll have more accidents and wake up calls, but it's got to go at some point. It's already gone, so I'd like to keep it that way.

Sleep Talking

Shane's conditioned me. I can't go to sleep before 11 PM anymore.

That's when he talks in his sleep. 

It's not every day, and it's not nightmares like before. I've heard, "....mumble mumble...mumble....angry birds."

He's called out a few times, though. And each morning after, I check in and Shane has no memory of anything. 

Still, I listen. If Shane calls for help or cries out, I say "hello," he goes back to sleep, and I leave the room. Come dawn, it's like nothing ever happened.

Excluding I'm an hour or two short on sleep when Shane bounds in at 7 AM, at least. The dreams occur several nights a week at most, but my ears are on alert all seven..