THREE...

That's how many hours of sleep I got last night. Why...you ask? Was Caleb awake all night, you wonder? Nope. Was Seth having a restless night from teething? Nope...not at all. Here is a recap of last night's events:

It was around 3:30 a.m. I had finished feeding Caleb and I was rocking him to sleep in the glider in our bedroom (that's where he sleeps). It had taken an hour from start to finish because he kept needing a diaper change every time I tried to put him down...let's just say he had no problem going to the bathroom last night. Anyway...I was rocking, rocking, rocking...gazing off, zoning out, off in la la land...staring out into the hallway and into Seth's room...when all of a sudden, to my horror, a big brown mouse climbs up the last step, walks into Seth's bedroom, makes a left hand turn, and scoots right into his closet!!! I about DIED!!!! I think my gasp woke Scott up from across the room! I frantically explained the situation to Scott and (very firmly) asked him to go check it out...now, mind you, I'm almost crying just thinking about a mouse in my baby's room! I had been working in his closet all afternoon organizing clothes and boxing up things Caleb has grown out of so I knew the little stinker had lots of hiding places (big closet..lots of cubbies, boxes, piles of clothes, etc.). Anyway--Scott came right out of his room and told me he would set a trap. Well, he meant business because 20 minutes later he finally came back up and said he had set traps all over the house. This is a guy who NEVER gets out of bed once he is asleep...even when there are noises in the house and I am pleading with him to go check on things, and even when I thought I was in labor and begged him to help me time the contractions...he just rolls over...it's not that he's being a jerk...he is just a very hard sleeper. Later I found out he actually saw the mouse in the corner of the closet when he went to investigate so I think that's what spurred him into action!

My question is this...mice climb stairs? Sixteen of them? What if I had to go downstairs in the middle of the night to get more diapers (which I do quite often) and had stepped on it or saw it run down the steps...it would have scared the crap out of me!!! I have been stomping around the house all day...trying to make my presence known...afraid one might run by me or pop out of the heating vents.
I am paranoid in my own house! I am scared, right now, as I type this because the house is too quiet and one might run by. All night long, I lay awake, worrying that the mouse was in Seth's crib, or under our bed...I even held my pee for 3 hours because I was creeped out.
Poor me. I'd much rather be dealing with spiders or bugs who just stay in the corner in their webs or in the window sills. At least they don't pee and poop everywhere they go...spreading diseases and possibly infesting your house with fleas or other disgusting parasites. Now I'll have to worry about the chance that they've already had babies.... hundreds of babies scurrying around my cupboards and under my couch and in my closets. Okay, so I exaggerate...slightly. Yes, it is nasty to have mice in those places. But if you're going to have mice, that's where they'll be...in the kitchen and on the MAIN FLOOR...or so I've always thought. I have to draw the line at mice actually climbing stairs to invade our sleeping area...there's no reason for a mouse to be in a bedroom!
The thing is is that I'm usually not super squeamish about these sort of things... I grew up in an old New England home so I am used to having some "living things" reside in the same living area as I...and I spent a year in Honduras where I ran into my fair share of large insects, lizards, frogs, bats, tarantulas, scorpions, etc. And this house is old...it was built in 1895... so I know better than to think that we are completely pest free...but seriously....dealing with critters has been an ongoing issue around here! A couple of weeks ago we heard an animal walking around our kitchen ceiling (in the eaves). The exterminator told us by the size of the hole in the roof, and by the look of the claw scratches on the side of our house, it was probably an opossum or a raccoon....which totally freaked me out...so I am already really touchy about animals nesting in my space (we boarded up the holes and haven't heard it since...but still). Am I being too much of a wimpy girl...or is this truly gross? Oh--and to my dismay...no mice in the traps this morning.