Just another symptom of messed up brain.
One of my cats has started sleeping next to my pillow. And I sleep with a stuffed animal (don't judge me!). I can not tell you how many times in recent weeks I've half woken up with a hand on my cats back thinking it's my babies head. Or with the head of my stuffed animal shoved up under my chin and me thinking I have a baby on my chest. My cat hates to be held or confined. It's a hold over from being stray the first 3 months of his life, he panics when confined. So he'll try to move and I'll try to scoop him closer and we'll play this tug of war for a few minutes with him trying to escape and me thinking that a baby is falling and needs to be caught and held closer. It's not until his tail goes through my clenched hand that I realize it's a cat and not a baby.
I have never actually fallen asleep with a baby on my chest or snuggled a baby in my sleep (too scared of smothering) so there's no reason why my brain should conclude that's what I'm doing when I've been snuggling cats in bed my entire life.
That's how confused baby brain can make you. It's very confusing to wake up thinking you're in the process of dropping a baby when in actuality a cat is in the process of jumping off the bed.
Oh man, I STILL do this sometimes and my kids are two and a half! When they were really little (like yours) we didn't EVER fall asleep with them either. But my mind obviously couldn't let that thought go. I'd finally get some real sleep then I'd wake up clutching my pillow and thinking that it was a child and freak out. I'd often start patting my hubs' face and neck trying to figure out if he was a baby as well. Good times.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn
I actually cannot even tell you how many times I woke up and started patting down the entire comforter, *certain* there was a baby there that was about to fall off the bed MONTHS after we moved them into cribs in an entirely different room. And we only actually had them in our bed a handful of times when they were teeny tiny. Funny what the brain does when it's half-asleep. ;)
ReplyDeleteI think your brain will wake you out of the baby brain mode when the cat starts to bite and scratch.
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