The Joy of White Noise

Are you dependent on white noise? I most definitely am. It became vividly apparent that both Ethan and I NEED white noise in order to sleep. Sunday morning we lost power in the house due to an old evergreen falling on the power lines two doors down from us. There was quite a bit of excitement because there was actually a fire and everything. I'm not sure how we missed that, but we did.

We spent the day wondering when the power would be back on, being thankful that it wasn't either 25 degrees below or 105 degrees, and planning where to eat dinner. The tree cutters finally arrived late in the day, but we were still hopeful that the energy crew would be right behind them. We were still hopeful that they would arrive as we watched the sun set.

Then, it was time for bed. It was time for bed without my fan and my humidifier! Ugh. How was I going to sleep?? I knew that it would be difficult because Ethan, who is also highly dependent upon white noise, was still not asleep and was popping up out of bed every hour. As I laid down, I had to scream out, "This silence is deafeningly loud!" I could hear every little creak in the house, every noise outside, the guinea pigs getting a drink of water. Each time I started to sleep, a new noise would arise. The most consistent one was Ethan. At midnight I finally asked him to try to stay in bed the next time he woke up. I tried to explain that he just wasn't used to the quiet, so the next time he woke up, he should try to relax himself and see if he could fall back to sleep. I'm not sure how or why that worked, but it did. He finally stayed in bed. Then, the excitement of the beeping things started. The boys had gotten new stop watches that day and had played around with the settings. We heard one of them go off in their room, so we stumbled to their bedroom with flashlights and grabbed both of them. I was certain that I had figured out how it worked and I was certain that I had turned it off. So, we left them on our nightstands and started to doze off. "BEEP! BEEP!" crap...I did not have it figured out. Kyle suggested that I throw it in his van in the garage and not worry about it. Great idea - so I grab the flashlight again and head to the garage to toss the one (notice, I did NOT take both of them!) to the van. Whew....I head back to bed ready for some sleep. Start to doze off and "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"
What the ?#$????? It was the second timer! This time it was Kyle's turn to take it to the van.

I believe that was the end of the odd noises, but by that time all sleep schedules had been disrupted. Most of these noises/activities would have been missed if I had had my white noise. Since I shouldn't be using a humidifier this time of year and since the fan is not loud enough, I promptly placed an order for a white noise machine. It is one that I have wanted since I was in grad school. I cannot wait for it to arrive. Now, if only it ran on battery power...I had best start searching for one of those!