One Crisis Per Night, Please

All mothers, all parents know that once a tiny infant joins their family that sleep will be compromised for a while, sometimes a long while. Add more children and the interruptions to sleep multiplies exponentially it seems. Things have going well in the sleep department for a while now that Breanna is usually only waking once per night, something I can deal with most nights. Except when I can't get back to sleep because of something or other on my mind.

Last night was an anomalie and I am thankful for that because it was an adventure! With the kids all tucked into their warm beds by 9:30 I had plenty of time to do sew perineums before I hit the hay. Maybe I should clarify that. I am sewing cloth perineum models that fit over pelvic models for childbirth educators. I make the whole set actually... newborn fetal model, placenta (with membranes and umbilical cord which attaches to the newborns umbilicus), cloth pelvis and perineum. They go perfectly with the knitted uterus my sister's mother-in-law knits for me.

But I digress. I accomplished a lot, all the serging is done and dropped into bed at around 10:30. I was drifting off to sleep when I heard a noise. It was the old familiar noise of scurrying rodent. Having grown up on a farm and been the proud owner of hampsters forever, I knew the sound well and a sense of dread came over me. This noise could only be from one or both of our newly aquired miniature hampsters we had obtained last week, all of four weeks old. So tiny and precious I could hardly say no when we spotted them so we purchased two females. Once home, my husband immediately asked if their being so small would be a problem with their possibly fitting through the bars of the cage. I confidently assured them they would be fine. Right.

I found one in our bedroom and nievely thought she escaped through the slightly bigger gap at the top of the door so I fixed it and was heading back to bed when son #2 came into the kitchen coughing like crazy. Cough medicine down and with him safely tucked back into bed, I returned to bed just as Allan was returning home from work around 11:15. I fell promptly to sleep after talking to him for a short while to be woken by another hampster noise. Ack. This time the little rodent was half way up our curtain between the layers. Houdini was quickly rounded up and I brought her down to her owners who put her in another cage.

I couldn't sleep thinking of what would keep those hampsters caged and suddenly it came to me, the cylindrical metal garbage containers the boys had in their rooms. Tall straight and very smooth sides would ensure no scaling of the perimeter and a hampster cage set on top to ensure safety if that failed. So I headed back down to bring the new plan to the hampster owners. They had found in that time Houdini did indeed squeeze quite easily through the standard width bars on the cage so we put the new plan to the test and wala it worked perfectly.

Back to bed I went, falling quickly to sleep again to be jarred awake by Breanna wanting Mommy. I tucked her back to bed, again I hit the bed... for the fourth time. The screaming wasn't in my dream, Breanna was again awake and I stumbled to her room quickly to avoid awaking the entire house. She was not happy and I walked her quietly in the hall until she calmed down. Ahhh, princess peanut butter was finally to sleep as the dawn promised to unfold. Exhausted I fell into a deep sleep and this time I did get some quality sleep before son #3 came to ask me to play at 7:00. Good morning.

Parenting is not for the weak, or those who need sleep.