Sleepy arms

Sam has woken up twice in the past week just screaming. It is a particular scream that I think I will recognize now. It took a while the first time to figure out what he was talking about since I usually don't turn the light on at all when I go to check on him at night when he wakes up and needs help getting back to sleep. This blood curdling scream was particularly urgent and at first I couldn't figure out what he was trying to tell me... I don't remember exactly what he was pointing to and signing, but in the dim light I noticed that one arm looked darker than the other.

I got out the flashlight and his right arm was a bright red color, almost purple, had a slight patchy look to it and upon further investigation I found that he had some sleep lines from his shirt dug into the underside of his arm up by the armpit. Conclusion, Sam had his first limb "go to sleep". He had evidently laid on his arm and cut off the circulation and it had built up pressure in his arm. It was probably not a fun state to be woken from; I know I don't appreciate getting woken up when that happens to me.

Anywho... once we let it set for a minute the right color returned, he calmed down and went back to sleep.

It happened a few nights later to a much lesser degree and he was much better at identifying that it was his arm this time. It was much less red this time and took less time for the arm to "wake up" and get him back in bed.

These first experiences into the less pleasant aspects of life must be very alarming to a child. In trying to be calm and identify with him what the issue he is having I think we are teaching him how to work through the unpleasantness and let us know what the problem is so we can help him.