Friday, February 13, 2009

Got Something!

Sleepwalking apparently runs in my family.

I remember being a kid laughing at my younger brother when we would waltz, zombie-like, into the family room and plant himself on the couch. We would try to engage him in conversation to no avail, tell him to go back to bed, and he would disappear back to his room. Most of the time after a trip to the bathroom.

This happened a lot when I was growing up. Luckily he never hurt himself, he just provided laughter for us all. One night when I was in high school I woke to Joe walking in my room and taking a stance with one hand on the wall - leaning in. It looked like he was getting ready to go to the bathroom. I said something to him and he relayed that he was hunting and had to pee. I quickly got him to go down the hall to the bathroom and told him that my room was not the forest nor was my wall a tree to lean behind. He kept these kinds of episodes up through his high school career. I know this because when he was in high school he frequently came to visit me in college and one night it happened again. He was staying in my dorm room and I found him, sleeping, "going" out of the dorm room window . And we were seven floors up. Luckily it was wee hours of the morning (ooh no pun intended, but I'll take it) so no one saw him or got showered because of him. I'm guessing these things kept up right through college too - though I wasn't there to witness them.

Fast forward to my family now. My daughter is as good at sleepwalking as Joe was, though she looks much more Zombie-like than Joe ever did. And like Joe, most of her sleep walking involves the brain trying to get her to the bathroom.

Julia has actually come into our room after several hours of sleep, gone into the shower, turned on the water and almost stepped in. Clothes and all. After stopping her and taking her back to her own bedroom, I found a pristine-ly made up bed. Although she was sleeping, she thought it was morning and made her bed and was heading to the shower. Funny thing is she doesn't usually shower in the mornings.

Well, last night, Legare made the sleep walking trek into our room - heading for the bathroom. We encouraged his zombie self to go back to his bathroom. I assumed, given the family history of sleepwalking, that the bathroom was his ultimate goal.

I listened for him to get into the bathroom - hoping to hear the "tinkle" sound knowing that with a sleep walker he may not get to his proper destination. Well I couldn't hear anything for a minute. Then I heard cabinets and drawers opening and closing in the bathroom. I decide it was probably a good idea to go see what my little zombie was up to.

As I get to the bathroom, the light was off but I felt like I could see something in there. After I flipped on the light I realized that there was nothing. Then it dawned on me that I couldn't push the door all the way open. Well, behind the door I found my 8 year old zombie ........NAKED.

I got a little worried about what he had done with his underwear. Was it in the floor? In the toilet? After trying to find out why he was naked he told me that he was in the process of getting his underwear and proceeded to go cabinet diving under the sink.

I knew that he was sleepwalking and making no sense, but he was getting me confused. And worried for my pipes. I don't think they could handle a pair of underwear.

After much prodding and questioning, I finally pleaded with him to please wake up and help me figure out where his underwear was. I don't think he woke, but we went into his bedroom to get him some more underwear anyway. Then...I saw them. They were in a little, wet pile beside his bed. Mind you, they had been dry and on his person as he started his journey into my bedroom at the beginning of this story.

So then it dawns on me that maybe he was "hunting and in the woods" when he got to his bedroom. So I started looking around and was floored when I saw that he had peed "ON" his bed. Not "IN" his bed, but on it. Apparently the bed was his tree in the woods last night. The cover was saturated, but it didn't get down to the bottom sheet.

Gotta keep your guard up with those sleepwalking Zombies. They'll go in the woods every time.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

your daddy has done the same thing, he usually heads for the corner of the bedroom. and I do think he was hunting also. laughted out loud, just waiting for you to get to the punch line.

Caroline said...

Haha... nights sure are interesting around your house. :)

Anne Wimberly said...

that is so dang funny!