Anyway, enough about that.
This morning, our daughter AJ woke up at around 1:30, went downstairs to look for us, and--seeing no one around--proceeded to curl up in my recliner chair and start crying her little heart out. When Ty and I ran down to see what was wrong with her, it was clear that she was utterly terrified. Her eyes were wide, the pupils hugely dilated--despite the fact that she'd been sitting in bright light. When I picked her up she buried her tear-streaked face into my shoulder and held onto me as tightly as possible, then looked up at her daddy for extra reassurances. We both comforted her as much as we could, then I took her back to her bed, wiping away her tears as I tucked her in. She reached up, and grabbed at my hands, holding them fast as she tried to stop crying and be brave. I stayed by her side until her breathing slowed, her body relaxed, and she finally fell back to sleep.
As for me, I went back to bed, and after a ridiculous amount of coughing and tossing and turning...I got to sleep as well.
Then, at around 6 AM, in that strange place between waking and sleeping, I heard a vaguely familiar beeping sound. As I continued to wake up, I realized what it was I was listening to: Our security alarm had been tripped. I ran downstairs and cancelled the alarm--but too late. The signal had already gone through.
Why did I just up and cancel the alarm with no further investigation? Because I knew exactly who'd tripped it. After punching in the code, and while waiting for the inevitable call from the security company, I ran out to the garage to retrieve my daughter.
Oh yes. Apparently AJ had woken up, come downstairs to look for me, and then started worrying that I was out in the garage. I brought her back inside, and set her up on the couch with a blanket, watching Curious George on Netflix. Her big brother had woken up at the sound of the alarm going off, so he sat with her while I went back to bed for another hour before I had to get up to get CT to school. Sigh.
Needless to say, poor AJ had a pretty rough night. Here's hoping tonight will be better for everyone. Before she went to sleep, I made sure she remembered that when she wakes up she should check in at Mom and Dad's bedroom before going downstairs. Hopefully, that will prevent any further occurrences.
Either way, between coughing my effing guts out all day long for the past 2 days, and only getting a few hours of broken sleep last night, I feel pretty tired right now. Kind of zombie-ish, really. Yet, I felt the need to log on and write a rambling blog post. Oh yes. You didn't realize you'd be enjoying the pure craziness that is my writing while I'm really freaking exhausted, did you? Well, now you've seen it, and I only hope the internet will forgive me.
I forgive you and have vivid memories of sleepless nights with small children. My eldest son used to have night terrors and that was certainly a less than fun thing to live with.
ReplyDeleteAt least the kids didn't leave their rooms when they woke
Hope you have had some sleep since
I have been able to sleep more since then, thanks. :)
DeleteNo night terrors in my kids...yet. But hey, who knows? I think her problem had a lot to do with the fact that she's been sick too. She was just coming out of what I've had, so it may have affected her sleep. Either way, things are better now. Thank goodness.
YIKES. Glad to hear things are going better now, at least! I thought it was night terrors like Mynx did, and I'm glad to hear it's not. I hope you're feeling better -- those hacking coughs are the WORST.
ReplyDelete