Thursday, February 9, 2012

cursed

Yep. I should of known better then to say how well Madeline was sleeping in my last post! That was probably the last time she slept well. She attempted to have a friend sleep over for her birthday, the friend was fine. Madeline was not. Apparently having someone strange in her space made her anxious. It just spiraled her out of control again. Several emergency sessions with her therapist, every night in my room, she hasn't entered her room other then to get clothes since that night, and one discovery later. Madeline sleep walks!

We had no idea. Now that I can tell, I know that it has been going on for 3+ years, ever since that fateful vacation when her anxiety disorder was triggered. She appears awake, slightly groggy, but awake. Madeline will talk to you, answer questions just fine, eat, use the bathroom even and the whole time she is asleep! I never once thought to ask her the next day if she had any memory of the night before which is how I finally realized it. I knew about her night terrors that she has sometimes now and she talks in her sleep, but realizing the sleep walking has been eye opening. It is the root of many of our night time issues with her. It happens when she is anxious, on a good week it may be once a week, when she is in one of her cycles, it is nightly. And she can do it several times a night.

I'll put her to bed, check on her on the agreed upon minute, she may or may not be asleep, and then we do another time for me to come back. I return and she is snoring. 5 minutes later she is out asking why I never came in. This is her sleepwalking! She may want a snack, may ask questions about something, she could up for for 30 minutes before I walk her back to bed, the second she lies down she is snoring loudly again. She may or may not repeat it another 1-3 times times. Once it has been about 1.5 hours from the time she went to sleep then she stops doing it and will sleep soundly. If you ask her in the morning about anything that happened once she started snoring, then she has no memory of any of it. We have done this for years! Now that I know I have more patience for when it takes 2 hours to get my 9 year to stay in bed.