Jingle Bells in My Dreams

Mom had fallen a couple of times trying to go to the bathroom at night by herself, so I have moved into her room and sleep in her bed with her at night. She doesn't move around at night; she climbs into bed, settles into place and doesn't twitch from that spot until she gets up for some reason.

Because she sleeps long periods at a stretch and doesn’t move while sleeping, we were worried that she might develop bed sores. To avoid that we bought her a memory foam bed that can be raised at the head and foot so that we can keep her moving and no one spot will bear the weight the same way for too long. Great!!!!

Except that, she was already Ninja silent when getting out of bed at night. I called her my Stealth Mommer. The only way I knew she was getting up was when I felt the bed moving. With the memory foam mattress, the bed doesn’t move. So I pinned jingle bells to the fringe of her side of the bedspread. Now, when she starts to get up, the bells go off and I can get to her before she gets up and falls.

Last night, I was exhausted, I was wracked out fast asleep. I was dreaming of old time airplanes at an air show…. I have no idea why, so don’t ask. As I watched, one of the plane’s engines started making a funny noise, like jingle bells… In a proper Pavlovian response, I jumped up in my dream and started running. As I woke to realize that the jingle bells were not JUST in my dreams, I was already out of bed and half way around it. It actually took me a moment to re-orient myself to the dark bedroom from the open air show I had been in a few seconds before. But I was moving without being awake. 

I am a soldier’s daughter. I grew up on tales or heroes who, when the tumult arises, advance to the sound of danger! I find it somewhat disturbing that, when the tumult arises, I advance to the sound of jingle bells.

 

Yeah….