All the children are poor sleepers in one way or another. Serena perhaps sleeps the easiest, though I know first-hand how she kicks in her sleep, and she’ll be aghast one day to find out that I have told you that she sleeps so deeply that she neglects to wake before peeing.
Nathaniel fights battles in his sleep. At the tender age of seven months he began having night terrors, waking open-eyed and screaming for an hour before dropping back to sleep just as suddenly. The first time coincidentally occurred after he had witnessed 4th of July sparklers, and I blamed an entire holiday for this for very long time, but after ten years of this I am finally convinced that it couldn’t have begun by watching sparks on a warm and humid summer evening as the brightness of the sky waned. Fortunately, though, he has toned down the screaming and the terrors now mainly manifest as tormented utterings (a few times in other languages; one night he addressed a group of cows in Spanish) several times a night.
But it may be Eric’s sleep patterns that are the most interesting. He made the transition to his own Big Boy Bed early in August but I suspect he doesn’t think of it as his yet. After all, he went to sleep every night in mama’s wide green bed (which must have mystified him a little, waking up every morning in his crib, perhaps by teleporting there in the night?) for well over three years; how can this low blue bed possibly be Eric’s?
It was made low on purpose, because Eric moves a LOT in his sleep, sitting up and then falling down again where and as he may. He has fallen off mama’s wide green bed many a time onto the carpeted floor, often remaining asleep right where he lands.
But often, Eric rouses, not just when he falls off the bed but any time.
And then, he goes searching for me.
Often late at night as I sit pecking away at my laptop, I hear Eric slowly slithering down the stairs. He used to go down on his belly but now he sits on each step and slides slowly down the the next one below. The procedure makes me a bit nervous during broad daylight; how does he do this in the dark and while mostly asleep? So I scoop him up and deliver him back to his bed.
Is he asleep when he does this? I suspect he is, as he never says anything, never responds, and he always seems content to be returned to his bed.
Eric has been found, asleep, in some odd places. Usually it’s on the floor somewhere in the room we share, but Nathaniel and Serena found him once on the stair landing, halfway down. And I have found him, asleep, poised at the top of the steps, ready to go down. While asleep. And I have seen him climb from his bed onto mine, while he was still asleep.
The other night, late, I came out of the bath and kicked something soft on the way out, maybe clothes on the floor or something, I thought. It ws dark and I couldn’t see so I left it and went downstairs and worked for another hour. When I came back I again encountered the pile of … something on the floor. It didn’t have the usual furriness of one of the cats. It had some give, so it wasn’t clothes. It had a … leg. And arms. Oh, it was Eric. He must have gone searching for me when I was in the bath and then fallen asleep again right there on the floor.
I wonder where we will find him next?
[tags]sleep, night terrors, sleep walking[/tags]
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