Keep thinking DH is DD when I'm sleeping!

[dusty]

The last few nights I've had the strange experience of thinking DD was in bed with us (she sleeps in a separate room) and wake up stroking DH's head, body etc thinking he is DD. It is sooooo real to me. Apparently the first night I did it DH thought I was joking as I took an imaginary dummy out of his mouth and cooed to him. I woke suddenly wondering how DD had come to be in bed with me (rather freaky as I feed her in a chair and put her back in her cot and couldn't recall bringing her back to bed) and then searched with my hand on the other side of the bed looking for DH in case he rolled on her and calling for him only to then hear to my shock he was in fact in my arms and who I thought was DD! It had felt so real that it was her.

Anyone else experience something like this? I'm not very sleep deprived at the moment and nothing has really changed in our routine of a couple of night feeds. I'm beginning to realise I am dreaming it as I wake up but it still happens a few times a night.

[suse]

LOL Dusty - I did the same thing for MONTHS when E was a baby. I would wake in a panic thinking that he had fallen out of our bed, then pat around the bed, feel DP's head, relax thinking it was DS and try to pick him up to put him back to bed (you'd think I'd have noticed that he was six feet tall and not a tiny baby). Like you, DS slept in a cot and we never co-slept with him, so I'm not sure what my subconscious was thinking.

It's only ever happened once with DD, and we semi co-sleep with her (she's in a cot in our room and sometimes ends up in bed with us). You'd think it would happen more with her, but nope.

Weird huh?

[Trillian]

Even though you're not sleep deprived, you're probably in a really deep sleep. When I sleep that deeply I think of all sorts of weird things that seem real LOL

[dusty]

you'd think I'd have noticed that he was six feet tall and not a tiny baby?

Ditto here! It was so surreal once I realised it was DH, he really was this little baby to me LOL.

[Manhattan]

This still happens to me now, and DD is nearly 1! DH is quite a restless sleeper, and when he rolls around, I often think he is DD and reach out to grab him to stop him rolling off the bed. I honestly feel like it is DD and she is in danger. The weird thing is that DD has never really slept in our bed, so there is no reason why she would be rolling around in bed with us.

I put it down to being on duty 24/7. Our minds never really switch off, and we are thinking about our child's safety and well being all the time.

x

[~clover~]

When DD1 was a bub if DH touched me in bed I'd wake up freaked out thinking he'd rolled on her & would tell him to get off.
Then when she wasn't there I'd freak even more & start searching the bed for her. It would take a few minutes for me to realise what I was doing, check the cot & see that she was right where I left her...
We didn't co sleep with her either.

[dusty]

Its weird isn't it. I think the whole 24/7 thing has a lot to do with it. Trill I'd love to think it was deep sleep cause most of my sleep these days feels pretty light (ie ready to leap out of bed to attend to DD).

[Miss.September]

Ohhh hate it when you're dreaming something so real. I woke DH up in the middle of the night, yelling at him to give DD back, she was under the covers. Poor DH leapt up and went looking for her, pulling back every cover, while I slowly woke up, realised she was in the porta cot beside me and went....ahh....umm...honey? You're not the only one Dusty!

[melbel]

Yup I did similar things when C was little...would wake convinced he was in the bed and I couldn't find him...he was sound asleep in his hammock next to the bed.....I think maybe it is also a first time mummy hormone thingy.....maybe we are programmed even when asleep to be protecting our young