When I was a child I used to sleep walk. My parents tell me that I would get out of bed, take off all my clothes, and then walk into there bedroom and start peeing all over the floor. Sometimes I would go to the kitchen, but usually it was to there room.

My mom would take me into the bathroom, clean me up, have a conversation with me, and then put me back into bed. I did this off and on until I was around 10 years old. I never remembered. I had no recollection at all. I never woke up.

I didn't learn about this until I was a teen. It came out one day in a conversation with my parents. They said they never told me when I was younger because they didn't want me to feel bad or be embarassed. I thought they must be exagerating. I had never heard of such a thing and just couldn't understand how I didn't remember or why I hadn't woken up.

That is, until my husband and I started experiencing similar things with our own children.

One night I heard a funny noise coming from my sons bedroom. I walked in to find him standing in the middle of his bedroon....peeing all over the floor. He was even aiming as if there was a toilet there. I asked him (very loudly) what in the heck he thought he was doing? He calmly replied "going to the bathroom". He thought he was in the bathroom. He was sound asleep. He never woke up or had any memory of the incident. I now completely believed my parents. This was very strange.

About six months ago our youngest daughter, Paige, started sleep walking. I have woken up several nights to feel like something just wasn't right. I have learned as a mother we always have to listen to those little voices. Anyway, I go and check on everyone in there beds and three times now I have found that Paige was not in hers. I have found her downstairs. In the dark. Trying to get out the front door. Now, there are so many things about this scenerio that absolutely terrify me. The idea that she could get outside, while sleep walking, and I would have no idea, makes me shake in fear. Needless to say, our doors are now fortified with extra locks to keep her in. We even put the very heavy couch in front of the door when we go to bed as an added precaution. She also never really wakes up. I just put her back into bed and she rolls over and goes back into a very deep sleep almost immediately.

Over the last few months Paige has moved from sleep walking to having night terrors. The other kids had milder versions of these every once in a while but nothing like this child's. Paige's should win some sort of prize for putting the fear of God into everyone within a 5 mile radius who may hear her screaming. We had one of these tonight. About an hour ago.

She woke up screaming! She continued screaming for at least 15 minutes. I could not comfort her or get her to wake up. She was in our bedroom screaming so loudly "Stop It" that my husband had to close the window for fear someone would hear her and call the police. She sounded as if she were being tortured. I was sweating and starting to panic. Usually I can get her calmed back down within a few minutes. Not this time. I started worrying that something else may be wrong. Finally, I turned on all the lights in the room and basically held her in my arms so tight she couldn't move. She slowly started coming out of it.

We are now downstairs, while everyone else is happily back to sleep, watching Sesame Street. Paige is happily laughing and kissing me every few seconds and telling me she loves me. It is a good thing this kid is so cute and sweet. Otherwise, I may have been driving around looking for an all night drive thru Orphanage to drop her off at. lol. I am not sure my heart can take another episode like the one tonight.

So, here is my question. Have any of you experienced anything similar with your own children or siblings? Do you have any ideas on how to make them stop (besides prayer, which I will be doing fervently).

Hope you all are getting a good night sleep!

Labels: kids