If You’re Happy and You Know Shout Hooray

I am also stamping my feet and clapping my hands that it is the weekend.

My son, for the first time, is also excited about Friday. I think it has been a long, short week for all of us.

We were off for more than a week for the Christmas holiday so it was hard getting back at it.

This weekend there will likely be some baking. My son requested to make both cupcakes and cookies and wants to use the new dinosaur sprinkles my aunt gave us.

I hope it also involves some backyard skating, some outside walking and some indoor playing.

Happy Weekend.

Oh No!

I was really hoping my son wouldn’t get my sleeping issues. I have sleep parasomnia. I have self-diagnosed myself with REM Sleep Behavior Disorder.

I like to call what I have action dreams, in that I play out the scenes running through my brain as I sleep.

I have been known to clear off dressers in search of missing items, walk throughout the house searching, in late, for my son who has disappeared and hold conversations with whoever likes to listen.

The worst is the terror. I have these realistic dreams, which cause me to shoot out of bed and when I eventually wake, my heart is racing. I figure one of these days, my poor heart is going to stop.

So I had hoped, even though I know these issues are hereditary, that my son would not experience the fear.

It’s awful.

But Monday night, I heard my two-year-old call out to me through the monitor. I came into his room and he was pointing to his stuffed animal in his crib saying ‘No Cosmo. No Cosmo in bed.’ I reassured him Cosmo, the kitten, was not in his bed as Cosmo was sleeping with me.

But the damage was down. It took me three hours to settle my guy back down and convince him he needed to sleep again.

I gave him the advice that, sometimes, works for me – think happy thoughts and tell yourself no bad dreams tonight.

Tuesday night, he was again up for several hours and a hour last night, but I think it was association rather than bad dreams.

For me, these terrors are worse when I am tired (a known trigger). My guy had a shorter nap Monday so I will be doing what I can to ensure he gets enough sleep so his dreams are peaceful.

One Of These Days…

Does anyone know if action dreams, or sleepwalking, can kill you?

I am sure one of these days my heart is going to give out after a night of action in my sleep.

Last night, I woke up screaming with my husband yelling at me to stop. I was dreaming Cosmo our kitten was pulled up to ceiling by his string toy and wrapped around the ceiling fan, which we do not have. I also lost our son and suspected he was up there, too.

Thankful, the baby was in bed and the kitten was lying calmly beside me.
The husband, not so much.

Not only was he extremely displeased I woke him up again, but I think he was embarrassed and kept checking the window and muttering ‘people will think I am murdering you in here.’

My heart was beating so fast and my body was trembling. It took a good 10 minutes before my heart returned to normal speed.

While camping with my mom, sister-in-law and niece, I had another action dream, this one seeing me push hard on the light above my head.

I dreamed someone was trying to get to my family through the light and I was pushing them back in the light.

I was thankful my mom woke me up because I think if she waited much longer I might have broken the light. Again, my heart was racing in fear.

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger but I am wonder how many years my poor heart can handle this kind of drama.