Crazy night

Thursday night was pretty crazy. I had an urgent defect due Friday morning at 9 a.m., but didn't get started on it until about 10 p.m. because I spent way too long at the grocery store. Finished it up at 1:15 a.m. Went to bed in the guest room at 1:30.

Shortly after 3, Hosanna came in with Audrey, who had been wide awake for a couple hours. Hosanna was clearly at the brink of insanity and couldn't take any more. So I got up, threw on a sweatshirt & sweatpants, got Audrey and went downstairs.

Since I was working late, I hadn't cleaned up the kitchen yet. So I washed dishes like a zombie, with Audrey in one arm. She was perky, content, and most maddeningly, cute as a button. She's got this astonishing talent for turning on the charm when you most want to be mad at her.

About 3:30, I finished up the dishes and started the dishwasher. After a few minutes, the sound started lulling Audrey to sleep. By about 3:45, I managed to rock her to sleep. Her head was on my chest. It had been a long time since I was up late rocking her to sleep. In a weird way, it made me really happy to be doing it again, despite being upset at being awakened after such a short sleep.

About 4 a.m., I managed to sneak over to the couch and half-lie down, with my legs up and my head propped up on a pillow. Amazingly, Audrey didn't wake up. In the old days, the second my ass hit the couch, she'd open her eyes.

About 4:15 (I'm guessing here), I fell asleep.

About 4:45 (another guess), I woke up to the sound of Aria crying really loudly. I got into a little bit of a panic. I didn't know if Hosanna heard the crying; it seemed to be going on for a long time. But I couldn't move, because Audrey was still dead asleep on me, and I didn't want to wake her up. At some point I heard Aria say "I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO GO AWAY AGAIN!!!!!" Then I finally heard Hosanna moving around up there, and a few moments later, the crying dies down. The whole episode was probably only a couple minutes, but in that sleepy state, time seemed suspended, and it was impossible to tell how long things were really taking.

About 5:15 (really wild ass guess here) I fell back asleep.

At 6:00 a.m. on the nose, Audrey woke up and wanted to nurse. I took her upstairs to find Hosanna and Aria both awake in the bed, chatting away. WTF? Turns out they were awake since the crying happened. Hosanna told me then that the crying was actually the second time Aria woke up - the first time was while I was downstairs doing the dishes, and Hosanna went in her room for a while and then left.

So I handed Audrey over to Hosanna, climbed in the bed with my clothes on, and closed my eyes. By about 6:30 a.m. we were all asleep in the bed together. First time that's ever happened. It was really crowded, but we were all so exhausted that we scarcely noticed.

At about 8:00 a.m., Audrey woke up. Hosanna got up with her, leaving me and Aria in the bed. We fell back asleep and woke up at about 10:00.

So when I added it all up, there was a total of six hours sleep in there... never mind that half of it was either dozing half-upright on a couch or squished in a bed with three other people. Just one of those nights, I guess.