3:30 in the Morning

Well, I wonder how many other houses have this much action at 3:30 in the morning?

Cast of characters:

ME!
A - Andrew (the baby)
J - Jake (8 years old)
B - Becca (10 years old)
K - Katy (13 years old)
C - Cousin Jordan (also 10)

So, last night, J and B beg to have C sleep over.  C is homeschooled, too, so sleepovers on school nights are not a big deal.  Me and the hubs say yes.

The night starts like this: at 9 pm, J, B, K, and C spread out their stuff in the living floor and start a movie.  K is on the couch.  B is on the love seat.  J is in the floor on a pallet.  They have dragged B's mattress into the living floor and C is on it.

Just before 11, movie ends.  K leaves to go sleep in her own bed (no surprise there).  B moves to couch.

Within 20 minutes, B leaves couch to sleep in her own room.  I don't realize until later how weird this is, because, B has no mattress in her room.  C is sleeping on it in living room.

At 3:30, A wakes up.  I get up, feed him, put him back down.  All big kids are sleeping soundly.

Five minutes after I lay A down, he is back up.  I can tell by the sounds he's making something is up, like a burp or gas type of thing.  So I get him and rock him and pat him for 20 minutes, and he's still fussy.  So I think, well, maybe he's still hungry.  I go to kitchen to make another bottle.  It is dark.  As I start to refill bottle, A lets out huge burp.  In the dark I can't see it, but the splatting sound lets me know some spit-up has just hit the floor.  Clean spit-up.  Decide against bottle.  Go back to rocking.

At this point, A is now wide awake.  I'm trying to rock him (in our creaky rocking chair) without waking J and C who are sleeping in living room.  J is obviously disturbed by the creaking because he keeps moving around.  Bony little knees and elbows on hardwood floor = noisy.  So finally I say, "Pssst, J, why don't you go get in your bed, or at least move to the couch."  So he moves to couch to sleep.

Soon after (A is still wide awake), I hear noise from the girls' room.  Out comes K.  Headed to the kitchen for a bottle of water.  On her heels is B, headed to the bathroom.  A thinks its great fun watching them.  Finally both girls are back in bed.  A is starting to look sleepy.  He's half asleep when TINY KITTEN decides its time to tackle the box of drawing paper.  Much noise ensues.  A is wide eyed again.  J is annoyed by cat noise and packs up his pillow and blanket, headed for his own bed.  I threaten kitten with harm if she doesn't be quiet.  She understands me.  Or she gets bored with it.  Whatever.

4:30.  A is asleep again.  I lay him down, shoo cats of the bedroom.  Kiss a half-asleep J good night.  Move one drum, one toy gun, and one Buzz and one Jessie doll off his bed onto floor quietly as I can so he doesn't kick them off and make loud noises to re-wake A.

Somehow, C has managed to sleep through the entire thing without ever moving.

I sneak back through the house to bed.  All is quiet til kids wake up around seven.

So, we started out with:
K on couch
B on loveseat
C on mattress
J on floor

We ended up with:
K in own bed
B on floor in own room because
C on B's mattress still
J in own bed.

I was talking about this and B and K looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to write it up.  "That's boring," B says.  "Not to moms, it isn't, " I say.  "Moms will find it hilarious."  Because at some point in time, everyone's house has been this crazy at 3:30 in the morning.  And it's better to laugh about it than to cry, LOL.