Friday, February 19, 2010

Walk this way

Tonight I was sitting at the dining room table and Matt was at the computer. He turned around and we were talking to each other--we could see each other but had the kitchen and about 20 feet between us for those of you who haven't seen our house. It was about 9:30 and the kids had been asleep for over an hour, thank you Lord. All of a sudden, Abby walked right past Matt and into our bedroom , holding her pillow. She's a serious sleepwalker.

She's sleepwalked regularly since she was 3 or 4 years old. It doesn't happen often, maybe only once a month or so, and only when she's really tired. She's always been a very deep sleeper. I can go in her room, turn the lights on, and put laundry away at night and she never moves a muscle. So far the sleepwalking has been pretty unexciting. It usually involves her coming into the living room and wandering around until we guide her back to bed. We're pretty sure it always happens early, before we go to sleep, but I guess for all we know there are nights that she gets up and roams the house for hours.

It's really amusing to us, and it frequently results in some humorous situations. More than once I've seen her come out to the living room and then head back to her room. By the time I get in there, she's gone into her closet and is repeatedly walking into her shelves. I just turn her around and point her to her bed. Once she came out, walked to the side of the chair Matt was sitting in, bent over to put her head in his lap and fell fast asleep standing up. A lot of times she needs to go to the bathroom while she's up, so we take her but she falls asleep on the toilet so we have to hold her up and take care of all the mechanics for her. Super fun.

Abby never remembers sleepwalking the next day, and I think she suspects that we are making the entire thing up. Thankfully she's never tried to get out of our house or do anything dangerous (again, as far as we know--I suppose she could be going out to rave parties at 3AM and we'd have no clue).

Ethan does not sleepwalk (yet)(that we know of), but he has his own very strange nighttime ritual. I shall write about it tomorrow--and this story comes with visual aids. Ohhh, yeah.

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

I've always been a sleepwalker, and it's usually when I'm super tired. My mom said when I was little I would get up, walk down the hall to a dresser at the end, and open a drawer, rummage around, and go back to bed. When I had Olivia, I would wake up with her in the bed with me and would brag to the girls at work that Bill was such a good daddy for taking care of her at night and bringing her to me. When he heard that, he informed me that he had never once gotten up with her. I was sleepwalking across the house with her. She stayed in our room after that. It's freaky.

Anonymous said...

I used to be a sleepwalker... it seems kids have cured me from that! I don't think i sleep deep enough now! My mom & dad tell stories on me all the time! I used to get up and watch tv with my dad, commentary and all... sort the socks, I don't know what else!! My step-mom tells stories of my sister and I FIGHTING in our sleep!! (and she was a very light sleeper, she'd come in mad at us for waking her up and tell us to roll over!!) And we never knew we did it!! FUN STUFF!!! I KNOW!! I never tried to go outside... that would have been scary!!
kori "o)

Sarah said...

My sister TALKS in her sleep. Entire conversations. THAT is fun :)