In the middle of the night, David fell out of bed. No big deal. John got him back into bed, and I spent the next forty-five minutes getting him back to sleep. (For those of you playing the loss o' sleep game, that's your first installment.)

Then about a half an hour later, Rose called. She had a bloody nose. The first time Rose had a bloody nose I freaked out. The second through tenth times, I was a little discomfited, especially when she was trying to open her birthday presents and I had to squeeze her nose so bright red droplets wouldn't spatter the wrapping paper. Now, I pretty much take them in stride. She bleeds, I squeeze for 5-10 minutes, they stop.

John did the first shift, but she didn't stop bleeding. So, I took a shift, a fifteen minute squeeze. No dice. Then another. Still dripping. Then I tried to call the local emergency room to find out if they cauterized kids or was I going to have to drive across town to the Children's Hospital in the middle of the night. The beauracracy was so unhelpful that I told Rose we were going to give one more 20 minutes hard squeezing try. Rose was a complete trooper, cheerful and helpful. And to all our relief, the faucet turned off.

At this point, we'd all been up 1.5 hours (add that in now). Rose went back to sleep, but John and I had trouble settling down. I think I finally got to sleep around 5 (call it another .75) which leaves us with a grand total of (drum roll please) three hours lost. Now, that was a good night back in the agonizing Rose baby days, but, as my sister would remind me, I'm out of practice.

The kids are pretty healthy. John and I are having a slow recovery.