Synchronization of Us

2am i woke for the first time, the house was silent and both kids were sound. I tried to ignore the aches in my bladder but eventually gave in to temptation.

I returned to bed and sleep was just about to once again over take me when i heard Eilidh start to stir, it was quiet at first but within minutes had turned into a full blown scream. I waited, curling up under the covers in the hope that she would either settle or DH would still be up and go get her. Neither happened so yet again i left the warm covers for the cold bedroom air.
I went to the bathroom (again, 27 weeks pregnant remember) and woke DH up from where he had fell asleep on the living room couch. He moved and i went to get Eilidh.
I stopped outside her bedroom door, she had stopped crying a few moments before and silence has been resumed. I let around 15 minutes pass before i went back to bed, she had obviously settled herself.

Remember earlier when i had returned to bed and was just about to fall asleep when the crying started? Of course the same thing happened again.

After another bathroom break i went and picked up a frantic baby, arms were immediately thrown around my neck. Her head rested against my chest and we walked through to the living room together. Tears in her eyes she looked up to me, so sad and started saying “juice , juice , juice” . Bad mum had removed her water cup from the bed for washing the day before and forgot to return it. When she was given her cup she drank for a long time, finally handing it back to me and returning to the snuggling.

I jumped at the opportunity to keep her with me, we both lay on the couch together. For a while i just watched her sleep, she was on her side as close to me as she could get. Her thumb was in her mouth and her breathing was so slow and steady , it was one of these huge mummy moments when you cannot get enough of them.

It was then i first heard it, a small scratching sound . It was quiet but consistent and at first i thought someone was outside. As the moments passed i realized that it was coming from inside the room, not far from where we were lying. The scratching would get more frantic and i could here something moving around. I was moving my legs in fear although i could tell it was not actually on the couch.

It was dark and late by then and i could not stop my imagination running riot, at first i knew it was a mouse . Just a little harmless mouse that had somehow found its way inside our house, then it became a rat - a big fat rat that was leaving poison in its wake. As the moments passed and the scratching and moving around kept going so did my imagination - what if it was a huge spider that was smuggled back in a suitcase from overseas? What it it was a monster ? An alien that would scratch at the walls night after night as it grew and planned its attack. Would we wake one night with this huge creature in the room ready to eat everything in its site?

Over and over my mind came up with horrible scenarios , i have watched to many horror movies and read to many books to just ignore the situation. I eventually move , i put Eilidh in her cot (much to her dislike) and return to the living room. I turn on the light and arm myself with a toy wand of the girls - it has a decent sized hard head on it and go and try to investigate the noise.

I cannot hear anything anymore, the creature obviously knows they have been rumbled and it keeping still. I slightly move the couch from the wall , nothing is reveled so i try the Pouffe and still nothing. The noise had sounded like it could be coming from inside this so i slowly open it , i can not bring myself to move the toys inside it around so let it shut with a slight bang. My heart is going a million miles an hour and its now almost 3.30 am, Eilidh has long since stopped crying and i just cannot bare being in the room another moment.

So i leave it, shutting the door tightly and creep back into bed with Rebecca and DH. I lie there awake for what seems like the longest times, my imagination is still going crazy and i worry about Eilidh alone and defenseless . Sleep comes around 4am and thankfully by morning all the silly fears have gone .

When Craig finally got up i talked to him about it, he had mentioned a few weeks back that he thought there was a mouse but as i thought i knew my husband and how squeamish he was i thought he had imagined it. He never mentioned it again and i forgot all about it. His response was so nonchalance, “Oh Yes” he says “I hear it ever night, think its living in the wall where the hole for the internet cable is” . My response is very much along the lines of “WTF” . We have a mouse living in our house and its not something he chooses to share? . “It doesn’t bother me” he says “never moves from the couch” .

Its not the feelings i can have, generally i think mice are cute but not when living in the walls of the house my children share. And what if it really is some wonderful creature that has never been seen before? Surely all these horror movies cannot always be based on a lie