Somewhere In Between

There's this real euphoric feeling when you are caught somewhere between sleep and awake.  It's a fantastic feeling when you're just waking up from a long much needed sleep.  However, when you're constantly hanging in the torturous limbo and never quite falling asleep because there may or may not be a teething baby who has decided he wanted to change his whole pattern of life, it's just not that fun.

For weeks Kim and I have been caught in this time warp.  It's almost second nature now to stand up in the middle of the night and feel for a binky and put it in Rory's mouth.  Kim's beautiful smiles aren't greeting me as we are jolted from slumber.  It's baby crying, mommy grunting as she pulls herself out of bed, and then silence for a few moments.  If we're lucky.

Last night however was bliss.  The little Ror-star fell asleep at 9:30 along with both of his parents and around midnight I woke up to the sound of nothing.  I was so shocked I had to go check on the baby and he was sleeping soundly.  So far so good. 

15 minutes later after I'd just fallen back to sleep something pounces on the bed beside me. 
I jolt up and the dog is whining and whimpering and wallowing.  I scold the dog, because honestly why wouldn't she choose this totally blissful night of sleep to wake me up crying? 

I slide out of bed, trip over a shoe, open the door, remember to wrap a throw blanket around me from the couch and lead the dog out on her leash.

Bella goes flying into the yard, dragging me behind her, the throw blanket falls somewhere behind me, and I'm just standing there in a pair of boxers and the 28 degree wind.  Bella tops off the sundae by barking like mad at something in the yard.  I can only think it's a skunk.  There's a stir and my eyes try to find the other animal which is only a dark shadow.  It's big though.  I can tell that. 

"Come on Bella!" I say pulling on the bark factory.  Firstly, I don't want to get eaten by some rogue alligator that wandered too far from the lake.  Secondly, I don't want Bella waking up half the neighborhood but more importantly Rory, WHO IS ACTUALLY SLEEPING!

After a few squats and a steaming splat, I realize the animal in our yard is our neighbor's dog.  For whatever reason it's out at midnight is beyond me but I'm just glad to be back inside where it's warm and yes, we do have the heat on. 

Before I hit the bed once more, I grab a glass and fill it at the refrigerator.  Apparently the gentle click of the lever sounded like someone knocking on the door because here comes the Dog of the Year barking and yowling like a banshee right in our bedroom.  I might have swore at the dog and wanted to throw her right out the door.  (Which is maybe why our neighbor's dog was out there) but even her complete obnoxiousness wasn't enough to wake up the sleeping babe.  My wife however wasn't as lucky.  It was fine though, she fell back asleep quickly.  So did I.  But perhaps it's just my new lot in life.  No matter what I do, someone is going to wake me up with their crying.