Nightime Adventures

No, they are not those kind of adventures! LOL

The past several nights I have slept very deeply, in part due to plugged ears, so that waking feels like coming up from deep underwater. Last night I was surprised at 1:30am to be awakened by my baby nuzzling at my breast, and opened my eyes to find both her and my husband staring curiously at me. She had been sleeping in her crib, which is only about 10 feet away, yet I hadn't heard her crying, and didn't even wake up when Daryl got her and brought her into bed to nurse.

At 4:15am she awoke again to nurse, and as I was laying there drowsily I saw what looked to my sleepy brain like a sock go flying by, as though someone had thrown it across the room. I observed that Daryl was sleeping deeply, not throwing anything, and determined that it must have been my eyelashes as a I blinked. A moment later I saw the shadow of a bird on the wall. Since it was dark out (we have a nightlight on so I can see the baby in the night) I knew that wasn't possible. A second later I saw the winged creature go by. I nudged Daryl. "There's a bat in here!"

"Is the door shut?" he asked groggily. On its next lap it swooped low over our bed and he saw it. He rocketed out of bed and out the door, yelling, "I hate bats!" leaving his wife and baby behind. I pulled the sheet over my head, but A., who had awakened when we started talking, pulled it back off. Sighing, I scooped her up and scurried out of the bedroom. I sat and nursed her while Daryl went back into the bedroom to see if was still there. He had opened the front door in the foyer right next to our bedroom door on his way by, and was hoping it had flown out. It wasn't in our room so he checked around upstairs, in case it had gone up the stairway in the foyer instead of out the door.

Determining it was no longer in the house, he sat down to work, since it was now about 30 minutes before his alarm would go off anyway. I had no intention of getting up at 5am, but A. thought it was playtime. I deposited her on the floor by Daryl with some toys and went back to bed. Just as I was drifting off, I heard her cry. He gave her some kitchen utensils, since baby toys get boring, and I began to drift off again, only to be once again jarred awake by her cry. Daryl felt she was now sleepy, and after a few minutes of tossing and turning she settled down and nursed back to sleep.

This marks the 5th bat we've had inside the house since moving here 4 years ago, not counting 2 that were in the vacant house before we moved in, surprising friends of ours who spent the night in the house. I know how the bat of last night got in. I asked J. to open windows as the evening began to cool off, and she mistakenly opened the one with no screen (it was removed by me when locked out of the house a month ago).