Amelia & I were sharing a room in London. It was the only hotel where
we had two double rooms instead of a quad and so it was that it fell to me to keep Amelia from wandering off.
I can’t remember now whether it was the first or second night there that I
woke up in the middle of the night to the rattle of the hotel door & found
Amelia ineffectually pawing at it. It turned out to be a fortunate thing that
the hotel lock was a weird gizmo and required a fair bit of strength &
dexterity to open.
“What are you doing?” I sleepily inquired.
To which she cheerfully replied “I thought I’d just go get some
moisturizer.”
Uh-uh.
My kids sleepwalk. They sleeptalk. So does Roo. He likes to sit up in bed
and make announcements in complete declarative sentences. I can’t be bothered
with such activities. The only thing I do in my sleep is grind my teeth.
But the kids are more energetic. They also both had episodes of night
terrors during early childhood and that is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Trying to soothe a child who keeps staring through you and shrieking in panic as if a
monster is standing right behind you is more than a bit unnerving.
Since this didn't involve screaming or freaking me out by making me think somebrainsuckingthingwithbigteeth was sneaking up on me, I was feeling pretty mellow. “How about you go to the bathroom instead and then go back to sleep?”
“Ok,” she readily agreed.
I'm not even sure that I stayed up long enough to wait for her to return to bed. All I know is that in the morning she was there.
And of course, she remembered none of this.
1 comment:
Night terrors are the worst. My son started with those when he was 4 or 5 months... MONTH, not years... old. It's petrifying when your child who has been able to hold his head up since birth is as floppy and unresponsive as a seizure victim. He still gets them sometimes and he's 9 now. Anywho, he does sleepwalk sometimes. Glad this episode of yours was harmless!
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