Here’s something interesting I’ve just learned about our sleep deprivation.
Even though Tricky may wake us at odd hours (last night he woke at 3am and then 4.30am), in between those waking times C and I are obviously sleeping like the …ahem…dead.
And the reason I know this, is because last night at 1.30am a silver hatchback parked outside our front gate, maybe 20 metres from our open window, was firebombed, but we slept through it.
The tree outside our house was set ablaze, there was a police car, fire engine and ambulance on the scene within minutes and neighbours standing all over the footpath, but we slept through it.
Thick black smoke and the smell of burning car swirled through the neighbourhood, bats filled the sky and the moon shone blood red (ok I'm making that last bit up) BUT WE SLEPT RIGHT THROUGH THE WHOLE THING until around 3 when Tricky woke up crying (no doubt traumatized by the sirens or nearly asphyxiated by the fumes) and immediately woke me up too. I sat up, fought my way out of our mosquito net, and hung over his cot mumbling shhh, mama's here, go to sleep as I patted his bum. I do remember that it seemed to take a while before he settled. I thought briefly about getting a drink of water, checked the clock, fought my way back into the mosquito net and instantly fell asleep again.
By some little quirk of luck we had parked our car in the back yard overnight and drove off happily to the markets (as we like to do on a Saturday morning) without even a hint that anything odd had happened in our pleasant neighbourhood.
So it wasn’t until we drove home and parked on the road and saw the burnt out shell of the car, the scorched tree, the glass and debris all over the road and the ash all over everything that we thought…what the? Our next door neighbour gave us the grizzly details, including the fact that the petrol canister sitting on the backseat was a dead giveaway that it was deliberate.
The whole place smelled of burning car he said as we turned to look at the open window which seemingly blocked out all trace of noise or mayhem from our slumbering bodies.
How could you have slept through that? We didn’t bother knocking on your door because we thought you must have gone away.
We’ve been sleep training, I said with a shrug.
Later C and I mused on how weird it was that I leap up at the slightest cough from Tricky but remain snoring despite the CSI scene on our doorstep.
Did you hear anything? I asked C. Because I do seem to remember some bangs. Like car doors. Yeah, I remember some bangs, said C. Vaguely.
God, it must be the whole sleep deprivation thing, I said. That, and the bottle of wine we drank last night.
Maybe it's Narnia
11 months ago
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13 comments:
It was so wierd. How could we have heard nothing? Really, I would have thought our neighbour was trying to play some strange joke on us except there was the burnt out shell of the car and the nearly burnt down tree and the melted rubbish bins...
What I find interesting is the way our Mother ears equipped us to hear our babes calling out to us even when we are so exhausted that we sleep through a firebombing (freaky!). Did C also wake to soothe Tricky? In my house, J probably would sleep through that, too.
That is absolutely amazing that you could have slept through that! I also find it amazing that our mother's instincts alert us to our little ones so easily.
I, unfortunately, am a terribly light sleeper even when sleep deprived. I wish I could sleep like that...although, maybe if I drank some wine before bed it would help. I guess I will have to try that!
TOO funny! And obviously, Tricky is a good little sleeper...inspite of the wake-ups. It tells you that there is something going on (teeth, weeing, pooing, hair growing, or something) that awakens him. Not sirens or fires or shattering glass or strangers yelling outside your bedroom window. Ain't life weird, though?
You slept through a CAR BOMB? I wish I could sleep that well! That is amazing. You must post and tell us the reason why the car bomb was set where it was, if you ever find out.
However, I don't find it weird that the slightest noise from Tricky would wake you, though, even when a car bomb doesn't. It's just how our instincts were created. Good thing, too!
mmm 'bomb' is not the right term flicka, you're right, I have exaggerated a tad. it's not like it was packed with explosives afterall. it just sort of exploded in the way a car doused with petrol and with a petrol tank thrown onto the back seat would explode. so not 'car bomb' no. i live in sydney, not iraq.
and in further news we heard that it may have been a neighbourhood dispute with the neighbours on the other side, with the car-exploders wrongly assuming the car was theirs. it wasn't, it belonged to people further down the road who always park outside our place.
i shall end this ridiculously long comment which should really be an update by saying I used to get pissed off with people for parking outside our house (because we have a shady tree. well we did anyway) and then having to park a long way down the road myself. (It was worse when we lived in flats at the top of a hill). So while I'm surprised and a bit freaked out by this, there's a part of me that says: well THAT will teach you to park outside your OWN place.
(and just finally...flicka? what's happening? why the password etc?)
I remember those sleep deprived days! my first born was a shocking sleeper..I tell you I dont miss those days ;)
we have a neighbour that has all their friends part outside our place..drives me NUTS!!
Katt
I slept through a hurricane once. People can sleep through anything. Actually it was almost disappointing. But you need your sleep more than you need other people's dramas. So does Tricky..
I'm absolutely amazed that you two slept through the carnage! I wonder what Tricky must've been thinking about all the crazy new sounds?
It sounds like a scene out of a movie or something. I think that is wild! And yes, a bottle of wine can have it's effects :-)
I'm also amazed that you both managed to sleep through all that racket. I would think that the sirens would have woken you up! But they're not on the same frequency as Tricky, so really, they didn't have a shot.
Now then missy, don't you downplay it saying 'it wasn't A BOMB, you know' to us. I've watched a car set alight (I mean I missed the the actual igniting part, honest, I just came across it in a field by the side of the road one night as I was driving home. Is this too much explanation to sound innocent?).
Anyway, as I waited at a respectful distance for the fire brigade to arrive, the petrol tank exploded. Now it wasn't A BOMB, either, but by golly did it go up with a WHUMPF, and the vibrations rumbled through my car, spine, neighbouring small woodland mammals etc.
I think it's hilarious that you and C both slept through it (even allowing for how open windows really dampen out sound) - but I'll bet that had there been any chance of danger to the house and therefore Tricky your 6th sense would have had you bolt upright, ears & whiskers twitching like the aforementioned small woodland mammals.
Alchemilla
Hi there, first time here and sadly I made my way here by googling rectocele and blogspot together and came across one of your September posts.
Your little Tricky is a seriously gorgeous wee bubba. I am a mother of four and my youngest is 11 weeks old and I am the exact opposite of you, I can't STOP getting pregnant, not for the lack of trying. (I mean in no way to skite nor show off about this fact).
I enjoy your writing and have found myself chuckling away at all the little things that we find ourselves doing as mothers. I will definitely be back.
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