I heard something go bump in the night last night. And I'm not kidding. (Update #18)

[Fairy]

I know I'm the funky weird stuff chick, and I fully admit and embrace that. However, last night something very strange happened, and I don't mind telling you that I'm freaking out a little bit. DS has been sick, and I'm a night owl. Yesterday he had a swine flu test (not a fun test, people; not fun at all), he was crying, I was crying, it was great. It was an ok rest of the day, but it was a rough night with crankiness, feeing not great,a nd being really overtired. There were some raised voices and tantrums. He falls asleep in about two minutes, I do the evening thing, and I'm in bed at 1am. I'm almost asleep, and I hear

BAM BAM BAM on my nightstand. Right next to me. I'm faced away from it, but it is unmistakeably a BAM BAM BAM. Not evenly spaced bams, more like BAM-B'BAM. Like dotted eighth note-sixteenth note-quarter note.

Now I'm wide awake, alone (DH travels), with my eyes shut very tight, my body is on electric alert, and I'm rationalizing everything it could be. Oh, and terrified. Very sure no one is in my house. Corproeal. I am now sure, of course, dummy, it's my water bottle that fell off my nightstand, that was it. The cat did it. The one not laying by me, I mean. Right. GO TO SLEEP! And I did.

In the morning, the water bottle was on my nightstand. Would someone care to talke me in off the ledge?

[MontrealMum]

Yikes! That would have me on edge wondering too. Weeeelll...in our house that sort of thing is always attributable to the mice. Even tho we haven't seen them in 2 yrs. It keeps me sane. Or the people downstairs??? (we're in a duplex) Or the house expanding w/ warming temps outside? Rain? Hail? Trees rubbing against the house/windows?

I'm offering options because since my mom left I don't know the forecast for the midwest ;)

That is also why I really like to sleep under a duvet - during the summer. I also have one of those really long Maglite flashlights - you should get one.

ETa: very sorry to hear about your DS - hope he's OK?

[Fairy]

Thanks, Molly! I'm taking a maglite to bed tonight. For real.

DS just has a cold. Got the swine flu test cuz his asthma makes him high risk, but he's not nearly as sick as Melissa's DD or even as sick as he's been in the past. I'd be truly shocked if he had anything serious. Small fever doesn't want to go away, tho. Eesh.

[MontrealMum]

Glad to hear your DS is OK :)

I hear you on the bumps in the night thing - I have a very active imagination and it's only gotten somewhat better since DH is lying right beside me, and also since he offers his much saner and rational view on things. I have no idea how my mom put up with me as a kid.

But I'm still keeping the nightlight on. And that maglite beside the bed ;)

[rlu]

You ladies are up late!

I've always had a night-light (usually a digital clock near my face) and have spent many a night stock still, barely breathing, with the covers JUST over my eyes. We've had dogs for the last 12 years, so that reassured me no-one was getting in, but we lost BBD in Dec and the fears are starting to creep back in. I hear radio static at night, almost positive it must be the fillings in my teeth because no one else hears it.

I have a big ole maglite too.

Hope your son is feeling better soon.

[Neatfreak]

I am so glad that I'm not the only one who these weird things happen to! I will admit to sleeping with the light on when my DH is away ...

[Twoboos]

Fairy, just gotta say reading this made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I hate that kind of stuff. I sometimes wonder how long I can hold my breath!

Could it be house settling, some animals causing a ruckus outside that sounded like next to you (Happens here, DH can swear something came from one side of the house and it's clearly the other). Or just your brain going into overtime from a long hard day and being tired?

Or... well, I have no idea. Someone watching out for DS?? (Think GOOD bump in the night, although I'd still be freakin'!!)

Hope DS is better!! And your heart rate is down.

[JTsMom]

You said you were almost asleep- I've been in that state where I thought I was on the brink of sleep, but in reality, was actually asleep- kwim? Maybe you dozed off b/c you were exhausted after your stressful day, and slipped right into REM mode and dreamed it, and it just seemed real?

[pinkmomagain]

Don't know what it coulda been, but I would have been freaked out. Sometimes when I am falling asleep, I hear someone whispering in my ear -- not my husband. Oh, and dd1 was freaked out last nite, because as she was trying to fall asleep she said an old woman was sitting at the foot of her bed. How come these things don't happen during the day?

[LMPC]

I agree with some of the PP's that you were probably drifting off to sleep when it happened...there is a phenomenon called hypnogogic (sp?) hallucinations that we all have. You know, it's when you are falling asleep and you think you hear someone call your name? I bet that's what it was...especially since you were SOOOO tired!

[MamaMolly]

SPOOKY! I attribute it to the loving ghosts of pets gone by when things like that happen to me. I cross my fingers promise I've felt my cat jump on the bed, the same cat that has lived with my mom since 2004 and is now in Heaven.

Not to hijack but...I've mentioned on one of your other threads (about DCs being 'sensitive' to stuff, I think) but DD has had an ongoing issue in her room. Since she was tiny tiny she would occasionally wake up crying and would point to one corner in her room trying to tell me what upset her. Not knowing what to do, I had a word with the *whatever* that was upsetting her. I figured even if it was her imagination, I'd be validating her very real feelings by telling IT to leave DD alone. No problems for quite a while.

Now she is a over 2 and has a pretty big vocabulary and has recently woken up in the night sobbing and telling me that 'it is too windy' ***AND POINTING TO THE SAME CORNER!*** It totally freaked me out, but I calmly told the Wind to go away.

Any other suggestions? At this point I'm open to hanging a cross, a dreamcatcher, putting a packet of sage, what ever in her room. It has me creeped out.

[ThreeofUs]

I'm with you! In my house, we always say that my mom lives with us and is making the noise. We're not *quite* sure that's a joke.

But I have to say I lived at 53rd and Kimbark for a few years, and I heard lots of those noises. Oh, wait. Those were gunshots.... The South Side is no place for wimps!

Anyway, hope your little one is feeling better.

[Momof3Labs]

Whatever you do, don't go read the spider thread in the bitching post...

[MontrealMum]

Whatever you do, don't go read the spider thread in the bitching post...

Yes, trust me on this one. I had to stop reading after I saw only the top of the photo that Fortato had posted.

[bubbaray]

Hil, you know my experiences with ghosts in this house. The rational part of me says it was because you were just falling asleep, but yeah, I'd be freaked. Would it help to see it? Open your eyes next time?

FWIW, we wonder if there is a "presence" in DD#2's room (formerly DD#1's). Sometimes she just wakes up completely hysterical and apparently she's too young for sleep terrors (and its been going on since she was a newborn). DH swears up and down he's seen the same turn-of-the-century ghost in that room too. I've felt her when I was nursing in that room late at night -- but, ya know, I could very well have been hallucinating, I was so tired.

I dunno.

For the poster who's DD is afraid of one specific corner of her room, honestly, *I* would move her to a new room. Seriously.

[bubbaray]

Now she is a over 2 and has a pretty big vocabulary and has recently woken up in the night sobbing and telling me that 'it is too windy' ***AND POINTING TO THE SAME CORNER!*** It totally freaked me out, but I calmly told the Wind to go away.

Any other suggestions? At this point I'm open to hanging a cross, a dreamcatcher, putting a packet of sage, what ever in her room. It has me creeped out.


Like I said above, I would totally move her to a different room. Really, I would. We definitely positively no doubt about it had a ghost here when we first moved in. They DO exist. DH and I both saw her in our basement on multiple occasions. She seemed "nice", but it was weird. I wouldn't mess around with it, I'd just move her to a different room.

JMHO.

[gatorsmom]

Oh, fun! I love this kind of stuff (as long as it's not happening to me!). Could it have been a woodpecker outside the house? We get those sometimes. Pipes tapping, wood creaking in the house? Sure it's not someone outside your door banging?

If I were YOU, i'd figure out the morse code symbol for that tapping and see what letter it spelled out since you just recently posted the ouija board story...(cue the spooky music...) :wink2:

Oh, and if you see a specter or something, could you ask it where my wedding ring is?

(Sorry you were scared..)

[Fairy]

Thanks for all the replies, guys! I've been pondering it quite a bit in the last two days.

Update --> I slept with a flashlight last night under my pillow, as well as the bathroom light on in the hallway, and our masterbathroom light on, as well. I checked DS four times last night, and I think I woke him up the 4th time (d'oh!). I did not hear any further bumps, so that was a relief. However, a few other things of note include that an item in my downstairs bathroom got moved for no good reason, and its movement is highly unlikely. Could DS have moved it? Yes. but in his 3.5 years of mobility, he's not done so. Could DH have moved it? No, he was not in town. Could I have done it and not remembered. Yes. But I doubt it. Also, I've sensed a presence in my room before. Years and years ago, and never seen anything, but I felt *something.* Not convinced one way or the other yet. Will re-evaluate tonight. Oh, and the morse letter for what I'd estimate as -.- is K, not the offending letter, Smarty Pants. ;). And, no, I'm not telling. And thanks alot for reminding me :irked:

I do believe in this stuff, no question in my mind, but I also objectively feel strongly that that doesn't mean this particular instance is a ghost or that I'm destined to one day see one. But I've got a heightened awareness of them conceptually, so in my constant over-self-diagnoses, not all of which are accurate, I think about this quite alot. I've never experienced something like Melissa's basement-dweller, and honestly, I dunno HOW you've made it thru. And so far, this isn't to that level. But ... I'm on alert.

To the PP with the corner problem, how about sage-smudging?