I was startled awake at about 3:00 this morning. Ben had come into the room and was saying, “Daddy?” It’s really unusual that I would wake up before Dave did, but I sat up quickly and said, “What’s wrong, Buddy?” “I can’t sleep,” he said. I told him to get into bed with us, and before I knew it was turned back over and fast asleep. In the morning when my alarm went off, I rolled over and was almost startled to see Ben laying there. Although I was coherent when he came in, I wasn’t awake long, so I completely forgot. I got up and started getting ready for work, and Ben never even moved. When Dave’s alarm went off, he looked at me with questioning eyes and pointed at Ben. He didn’t even know he had slept half the night with us!
When Ben finally did wake up, he was tickled that he was sleeping in our bed. I asked him why he had come into our room in the middle of the night. He said, “I don’t know…I just waked up and couldn’t get back to sleep.”
I said, “Do you know what woke you up?”
“I had a bad dream,” he said. “But I don’t know what it was about, it was just bad!” I felt so badly for him. I can remember waking up from bad dreams when I was a little girl and just always freaked me out.
I was always critical of people who let their kids sleep with them, and now I’ve done it…eaten my words. But I figure that one time in 4 1/2 years does not make me a hypocrite. There are always exceptions when you have bad dreams.
Is This Normal? 
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