"I don't remember your name"

 

Long-time readers of this blog might remember some of the more difficult aspects of mothering Jonathan. There was the reflux that lasted his entire first year of life. Roseola. Choking, twice. Croup, twice. Night terrors. Multiple cases of stomach flu. Ear infections. Choking at a little boy's birthday party and puking in their bathroom. Nightly wake-ups nearly 90% of his life.

So, it wasn't terribly surprising that Jonathan challenged me in a new way this week.

4 am Thursday morning, Jonathan woke up crying. Went into his room, he felt hot, took his temp and it was 101.4, a low-grade fever. Gave him motrin, settled him down, prayed for him, and back to bed I went. I heard him crying at 6am, but Jay's alarm was going off and I muttered something like "Your turn" and rolled back over in bed. Jay said when he got downstairs, Jonathan had already settled down and was back to sleep.

Around 8 am, I went back into Jonathan's room to see how he was. If he still wasn't feeling well, I wanted to call the pediatrician's office as soon as possible. Opened his door, and his eyes popped open. Walked over to his bed, sat down on the floor and started talking to him, because he was upset about the ear thememoter in my hand and was crying "NO!NO! I don't want that!"

I motioned to him to get down out of bed and come to me. He came, but sat on my lap facing away from me. When his shades are drawn, his room is fairly dark, and he pointed toward the hallway where the light was and cried "Take me to my mommy! I need my mommy!"

I took him toward the hall while asking him "Jonathan, what is my name?"

To which he replied, "I don't remember your name."

I am a little freaked out at this point, and ask him again, "Who am I? What is my name?"

Again, "I don't remember your name."

We head downstairs to join Faith, and I pause to wrap him in his special blankie. He also needed a diaper change, so I quickly completed that chore while asking over and over if he knows who I am. Next, I sat him down in a chair in the living room, hand him a cup of milk and turn on a tv show for Faith so I could call the pediatriian's. I knew he didn't still have a fever, so he wasn't in a fever-induced delirium, so what was going on?

I was on hold for at least 8 1/2 minutes, and guessed the total time from entering his room was 15 minutes when I walked back into the living room and Jonathan exclaimed "Mommy! Hi Mommy!" and ran and gave me a hug. The dazed, glazed over look was gone, and he was 100% back to normal. Except, he said "That lady changed my diaper and wrapped me in my special blankie." "Who was that lady, Jonathan?" "I don't remember her name," he said.

Needless to say, I had the doctor check him out and our best guess is that he was sleep-walking. Apparently Jay was a sleep-walker, as was Jay's mom (even into adulthood), and since we have no famliy history of seizures, this is our best guess.

What do you think he will do next?! What an awful lot I am learning from this little boy. Even if it is turning my head of hair completely gray in the process.