It was definitely a ‘pain’ cry which drew me to the surface from deep sleep. Poor Miss L, her teeth had been bothering her for the last week and still not broken through. I got up, quiet as possible, trying not to disturb the others in the house. This week in particular I was trying to keep the girls quiet as Nanna and Grandad have been staying over, bravely sharing a room with each of the girls.
Glancing at the clock on my way past it read 4.50am, too early for anyone to get up. After several attempts at resettling I resigned to picking her up and cuddling her off to sleep which finally was achieved 25 minutes later. This I thought was pretty good, only had to be up for half an hour so, after putting her back into her cot next to her sleeping Nanna’s bed I crept back to my own bed. I sat down and as my legs were in mid swing the circus started, Miss K yelled out very loudly in her sleep. I knew this would wake up Miss L if I didn’t act fast so back on my feet I shuffled across our 1 metre hallway into Kezi’s room where Grandad was no longer fast asleep. ‘Shhhhhh Kezi, its just a dream, go back to sleep, its ok’……..this was followed by the sweet sound of Miss K breathing in and out. She was asleep still of course so I crept out the room, it was too late, Miss L was awake again and with her the rest of the household, except for Miss K of course.
I quickly made my way back into Miss L’s room, picked her up and took her out to the lounge to settle her again. Not three minutes later the circus continued, Miss K yelled out again and this time Mum got up. Next thing I knew she was leading Miss K to the toilet and then back to her room. The light was on in her room and Dad had the covers over his head. There was no way that Miss L was going back to sleep now. Mum was trying to console Miss K who was yelling something about wanting to sleep in everyone else’s beds and so I put Lucinda back in her cot and shuffled like an angry bear into Keziah’s room, stupidly turning off the light as I entered. This resulted in me cracking noses with Mum and consoling Miss K in the dark, while Miss L started yelling in the background. Two seconds later there was another person in the room, Michael was woken by all the commotion and came in to help. Now there were four adults and one toddler in Miss K’s room while Miss L yelled in the background.
By this point my ‘this should have been simpler’ growly bear facade was well attached and I yelled ‘go back to bed everyone’, I can handle this!!! Michael crept off to bed, Mum went off to bed and Dad continued to hide under the covers. Miss K finally settled after a little while so I quietly shut the door on her and Grandad and went back to get Miss L.
After all of this I looked at the clock, 5.40am. I settled into the lounge chair once again with a wide awake Miss L, two minutes later two of the adults in the house wandered out for the toilet, banging into a couple of pieces of furniture on the way. Finally little Miss L drifted off the sleep once everything settled down, I laid her in the cot and crept back to my room, glancing at the clock as I went. 5.55am. Not bad really, was only up an hour.
We all laughed about it later but I did gain the nickname ‘grumpy bear’ for the day. We’ll just file this one away as a memory to laugh at sometime in the future I think.
