Well color me embarrassed!!

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

It was not the most pleasant of ways to wake up in the middle of the night. my almost 17 yr. old stepson screaming at the top of his lungs and beating on our bedroom door. He kept hollering that he saw a man in the house and that we were being robbed. Dh and I had only been asleep for a little more than an hour, and sleep with a box fan in the bedroom, so we heard nothing until Caleb was at our door pounding.

Couldn't tell us what he saw, no description whatsoever, even though he said he was close enough to him and struck the man in the jaw. When he woke up with the noise, dh grabbed his shotgun and was outside like streak, not even stopping to put on anything except his underwear. Our dog was raising heck outside, and we do have a large amount of wooded area behind our house, so we had no idea.

I called 911 and stayed on the phone while waiting on the SO to arrive. Within just a few minutes, we had 5 police cruisers here including a K9 unit. They searched and never found anything, our dogs were still going nutty, but that was probably from Caleb yelling to wake us up.

He's a typical teenager, and had an argument this afternoon with a classmate, but he has never had any kind of sleepwalking episodes or the like, and never really any type of vivid nightmares that he has told us about. You could hear the terror and panic in his voice and that even if there had not been anyone there, it was real to him.

The officers took statements from all of us, and I tried to make sure our 10 yr. old son didn't wake up and panic. He was upset that the officers found a few holes in his story. We did the usual (I guess it's protocol) walk through in the interior of the house, checking valuables and the medicine cabinet to see if anything was disturbed, and it was not. They did a neighborhood search and still came up with nothing.

We may need to get someone for Caleb to talk to, if he is stressing and having nightmares like that. We don't want it to build up, and his nightmare, if that's what it was, to worsen. Like dh and I said, we can't dismiss his claim that he saw someone because we were asleep. I know in the past when I have been sleepwalking it seemed so real to me that I did feel like it actually happened.

So now it's almost 4am and can't see getting any more sleep. We made sure our son got back into his bedroom and dh stayed with him to talk and reassure him some. The dogs are still freaked out, more than anything else, having strange men in the house. Mine is a mini daschund, so she's more an ankle biter than watchdog. I'm hoping he doesn't stress any more, but I would if it were me that got woke up to that.

Anne, RNC

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

No need to be embarrassed. Better safe than sorry.

What a way to wake.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Darn, no I don't see a need to be embarassed. If he DID have a man in his room he did the right thing, scream and pound until someone was able to help. I imagine he is/was terrified. From your post there is no reason I see to doubt him...(maybe I missed something) but if he is generally a good kid I'd have called the police. An intruder is too serious a problem to take chances with. I'm glad everyone is safe.

[medicrnohio, RN]

No need to be embarassed. You never know and it is best to keep your family safe.

[sharpeimom]

Give him the benefit of any lingering doubt. When we had a break in several years ago, it took our dog about a month to relax, become his old laid back self and not bark at every suspected noise. One thing our vet suggested was to have every person who came in any door --ANYone -- give him a treat and pet him and tell him he was good boy. Toward the end of the month, we weaned him off the treats and just used the praise. You've all had a traumatic experience but you will recover. Hugs to all of you, including the furries.

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

[caliotter3]

I woke up to find that a person had been in my apartment while I was there. Terrified me, especially since a stalker had been harassing me to no end. To this day, years later, I can't turn a certain way in bed without sensing a man approaching me and I have to turn and look in that direction. It is very stressful. Hope your son can conquer this if it truly was only dreaming.

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

Darn, no I don't see a need to be embarassed. If he DID have a man in his room he did the right thing, scream and pound until someone was able to help. I imagine he is/was terrified. From your post there is no reason I see to doubt him...(maybe I missed something) but if he is generally a good kid I'd have called the police. An intruder is too serious a problem to take chances with. I'm glad everyone is safe.

Yeah, he's usually a good kid, just a typical teenager. And I was impressed because he made a beeline for his little brother's room to make sure he was safe. Caleb did really well until after everything got quiet and he had time to think about what happened, so dh has been spending some extra time with him to talk.

Anne, RNC

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

What a sweetie. Yep that's how I'd be too, shaking like hell after it was all over and done. Maybe the boys can camp out tonight in one or the other's room, just for fun. With the dogs, of course.

[Melinurse]

What a sweetie. Yep that's how I'd be too, shaking like hell after it was all over and done. Maybe the boys can camp out tonight in one or the other's room, just for fun. With the dogs, of course.

No need to be embarrassed. I like the advise of having the boys camp out in one anothers room for a while. Hugs.:redpinkhe

[bagladyrn, RN]

Tell your son he has nothing to be embarassed about. Reacting as he did (and you did) is the safest option.

I had the opposite reaction once: I woke partially from a deep sleep thinking I heard voices in my apartment. Believing it had been a dream, I pulled up the blankets and went back to sleep. The next day I discovered that my wallet and paycheck were gone from my purse! Even scarier, my son (who was very young at the time) was asleep in the next room. I had trouble sleeping the rest of the time I lived in that apartment.