What exactly is a “seven alarm fire”?February 27th, 2008 @ 7:01 am
When I was about 20, and living at home for the summer, I awoke one morning to the hustle and bustle of my entire family talking in kitchen. The discussion was lively and voices were excited. I heard my dad and brother retelling the story of the events of the night before.
Apparently the farmer’s field next to my parents house had caught fire in the middle of the night. The surrounding neighbors had all come over to put out the fire. My dad and brother raced outside to help. My mother and sister stood close by and watched. Fire trucks arrived. Sirens were turned on. Ambulances were on watch, as well as all the local police officers.
And I, well, I was fast asleep in my bed. Apparently I’m a pretty heavy sleeper.
I began to question if my family was just pulling my leg. How in the crap could I have slept through an actual burning field? How could I have not heard the opening and closing of the front door to our house? How did I miss the blaring sirens?
When Babboo was first born, I quickly got used to getting up at in the middle of the night and feeding him. To be completely honest, I loved this time with him. Screw sleep, I was snuggled up to my sweet little bebe while giving him nourishment, and watching reruns of “Friends”.
It was Heaven.
He quickly began sleeping through the nights and I forgot what it was like to wake up to the sound of a newborn’s cry. Of course we did have out bouts of (intense) sleep regressions. And while they didn’t correct themselves overnight, they did correct themselves eventually. Now if Babboo wakes in the middle of the night crying, I don’t even hear him. I am simply no longer programmed to wake up. It’s the sad, cold truth.
I was floored last weekend when The King informed me that he’d been getting up every night for the last few weeks to quiet our crying toddler. Not only had I slept through Babboo’s cries, I had slept through my husband getting in and out of bed. Seriously, I had no idea this had been happening every single night.
(It’s stuff like this that makes me feel like a horrible mother. And wife. Of course I get over that quickly. But still. Horrible.)
Last night was a little different. Not only did I hear Babboo’s cries, I heard him screaming out for grapes. And Cheerios. And maybe even asking for a drink. And dude, the poor kid was coughing so hard I thought he was going to cough up his tiny little lungs. I prepared Babboo a full plate of food, at midnight, and then sat up with him while he watched a few episodes of his favorite show. (Which is not, it must be noted, “Friends”.)
My heart broke for him.
My heart broke again, this time for me, when my alarm went off this morning.
So tell me, have you ever slept through something crazy like a freakin’ field fire?
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My Sweet Babboo · They're just my family · I rock · The King · Back in the day
CPA Mom
said,
February 27, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Dude, I do this every.single.night. HP gets up just about every night with one of the two. Tigger has night terrors. Eeyore wants to pee. I never hear them. Of course, there’s that small matter of being profoundly deaf. But still! The Guilt! I have it!
HollowSquirrel
said,
February 27, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I’m a perfect mom. I never sleep. I just cater to my child’s every toss and turn and when not completely ensconced with his needs, I am busy trying to be the perfect wife– ironing, blowing things and cooking.
Now what was your questions?
Erika
said,
February 27, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Did Stacy just say that being the perfect wife involved blowing things? HOTT!
I rarely hear E now, also. Thank goodness the husbands do. When he was a newborn I would hear “phantom cries” (that’s what we call them at our house)…and it would be enough to bring me awake in a cold sweat.
In high school I slept through Hurricane Fran (my mom had even made me sleep on the floor in my parents’ room, which was on the other end of the house from mine). Remember how tiring it was to be a teenager?
super des
said,
February 27, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Not as severe, but last night my bf (who is currently Flu-Man) woke up to find that he had sweat so much he soaked the sheets, and he got up and slept on the couch. Eventually he came back to a now-dry bed.
I slept through the whole thing.
heidikins
said,
February 27, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I used to sleep through my X’s snoring, which, apparently, was monumental. As in literally wake-up-the-neighbors loud. Yeah, I never heard it, not once. Lucky me.
xox
Keri
said,
February 27, 2008 at 6:53 pm
The husband that lives here doesnt hear anything! I will be up w/either or both girls multiple times in the night & make a comment the next day to my husband about it. He will respond “oh she was crying’ or “you got up?”
how can i stop hearing & have him start? Send advice my direction, please!
Kim
said,
February 27, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I used to wake up with every baby noise but now that the last baby is 9, I’ve gotten out of the habit. Recently she woke me up to tell me she’d thrown up in the living room on her way to the bathroom. She continued to the bathroom and I swear I laid there dozing for 15 minutes before I fully woke up to deal with the mess and the sick child. Mother of The Year I am not!
I also slept through my dad building a deck outside my bedroom. Of course I was 19 and staying out until all hours of the night but still.
FunnyGal KAT
said,
February 27, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I will not be showing this post to my husband– he always says he’s worried about having kids because he thinks I will sleep through their crying (your post makes me hopeful I won’t). I’ve slept through everything– thunderstorms, the dogs barking, my husband getting in and out of bed. He sometimes goes into the guest room to sleep in the middle of the night when the dogs take over our bed… and I’m always surprised to not find him next to me in the morning.
Yet, with all this uninterrupted sleep, I’m still tired.
Carrie
said,
February 27, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I slept through a “freak” earthquake when I was like 13. Earthquakes are something we NEVER have on the east coast so I can’t believe I didn’t wake up!
Christar
said,
February 27, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Dude, that’s crazy to me! I am not a super light sleeper, but I do wake up when major things are going on around me. I seriously am curious now…. how does your alarm clock wake you up in the morning?! I have totally slept through my alarm clock before.
Liza
said,
February 27, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Can I have some of your ability to sleep through things? Pleeeeze? Cuz with all the sick in our house, Jill’s coughing has woken me up every night this week, sometime btw 3-3:30 am.
When Noah wakes up in the night these days, I’ll go refill his sippy cup with water. But that is the extent of middle of the night food service. And believe me, while he is sobbing “appa juice! APPA juice! NO WATER APPA JUICE MOMMY!” it is no fun. (Think endless repetitions of, “I’m sorry sweetie, but we only have water in the middle of the night.”) I’m afraid of feeding him in the middle of the night and him getting used to it.
What happens next week after we move into the big boy bed is a whole new question. Noah may go searching for appa juice. Or a gookie.
Operation Pink Herring
said,
February 27, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I am a terrible sleeper. I have to have a giant fan running every night just to drown out the city noise or I’d NEVER sleep. Sometimes — and I am not kidding — the ticking of Joel’s watch wakes me up.
And yet, I somehow sleep through the alarm clock when it goes off at 4:30am and Joel gets up. Sometimes I vaugely remember him leaving, but most of the time I wake up at 7 (who are we kidding, more like 7:50) and am surprised to find him gone. And then I remember, oh yeah, he’s coaching in the morning again. Waking up is selective — it depends on how tired you are, how hard you’re sleeping, etc.
I’ve slept through several earthquakes, fire alarms, our cats tearing apart the house in the middle of the night… and yet, the damn watch ticking keeps me awake sometimes.
BTW, I believe that a seven alarm fire means that seven fire houses were called to respond. I think I learned that from Ladder 49 (filmed in Baltimore! WOOT!)
Michelle Z
said,
February 27, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I do usually wake up with the kids at night (because I KNOW my husband won’t hear them, he sleeps so sound). But I can make up for it by napping well. Once I fell asleep while having my teeth cleaned. And I HATE the dentist’s office.
Chas
said,
February 27, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I don’t have anything as intense as sleeping through a burning field, but my husband likes to tell people that I could sleep through a surprise party…not sure why it has to be a “surprise party”…but that’s what he says.
Anne
said,
February 27, 2008 at 9:19 pm
It’s funny how quickly a midnight snacks turns from milk or formula to grapes and Cheerios, eh?
Totally stupid, but when I was in 5th grade I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan. At this time videos could only be seen on a few select shows, one of them Friday Night Videos, which came on at like 10:30 or something. Well, Thriller was being played and I was beside myself with excitement for WEEKS. Guess who fell asleep? Every member of my family tried to wake me up, but I wouldn’t budge. I was so.very.pissed.off the next day.
Angela
said,
February 27, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I slept through numerous classes in college. That wasn’t so great for my GPA, but it did wonders for my ability to stay out late dancing!
SJ
said,
February 27, 2008 at 11:35 pm
When I was younger I slept through a fire IN MY BASEMENT. A friend of my Dad’s spent the night because of a blizzard and he fell asleep while smoking a cigarette and caught the couch on fire. And I slept right straight through it all. I just remember my mother showing me the burnt to a crisp couch sitting out in the backyard in the snow the next morning.
Now that I have kids I wake up at the slightest thing. I rarely sleep a full night through.
janet
said,
February 28, 2008 at 12:25 am
I can sleep through a lot too — once I slept through an earthquake!
I love that Babboo asks for grapes in the middle of the night — good midnight snack idea
Kristabella
said,
February 28, 2008 at 3:31 am
I slept through a five-alarm fire that was about 100 yards from my window. Didn’t hear the huge diesel fire truck that pulled up outside my open window. Nor ANY of the sirens. Maybe I shouldn’t sleep with the fan on?
barnmouse
said,
February 28, 2008 at 5:05 am
When I was 17, my best friend and I went up to visit her brother at college. He and a group of friends rented a house on a “part-ay” street and according to, well… everyone, they shot off a potato gun around two in the morning that shot a potato over the house across the street. Of course, this is just “according” to them, because I was sound asleep, 20 feet away on the couch. My friend said they checked to make sure I wasn’t dead when I didn’t wake up!
meritt
said,
February 28, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I’m the lightest sleeper you’ll ever meet. The sound of a mouse sneezing wakes me.
Yet… when I was 16 I slept through our house fire.
Our house was ‘long’ with the garage on one end, then the living room, dining room, stairs, a bedroom, then my bedroom. The fire was started by a mouse chewing through a wire in the garage and burned the living room wall next to it. I woke when my Dad opened my door to tell me the house was on fire.
“Where’s the fire?”
“The living room.”
“That’s on the other side of the house and it’s freezing outside. Can I stay in here?”
AND HE LET ME.
It was February in the midwest and it was about 10 below zero that night. FREEZING. I was NOT going to stand outside in a blanket. I refused.
The smoke and smell was awful so we opened all my bedroom windows. I had a waterbed with a heater so I snuggled down into the bed and two of my little brothers too, but the littlest one had wet the bed so we made him lay by himself at the foot of the bed so he wouldn’t get pee on us (LOL) and we watched the firetruck and firemen from my bedroom window.
I can’t believe they let us stay in the house… but me and my Dad can be VERY hard headed when we want to be.
Audrey
said,
February 28, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Tim is the heavy sleeper in my family, which means I am always the one who wakes up to hear those last, it’s-way-too-late-now horks right before the dog pukes, I am the one who is kept up by the puppy’s 4-am crying. To even things out, though, sometimes I just kick him until he wakes up and tell him “The dog puked. go deal with it.” Hopefully that same tactic will work when I want him to go deal with a crying baby in the middle of the night.
Heather B.
said,
February 28, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I used to sleep through car accidents right outside of my bedroom window. My mother lives on a really windy road and because of a terrible blindspot people would crash. So yeah. Recently though I was in Oklahoma City and every Saturday there is a siren that goes off for tornados. Just for practice of course but apparently it’s pretty loud. One Saturday I was napping and totally didn’t hear it. There wasn’t a tornado but if there had been, I would have died. Awesome.
Interestingly enough I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about how I never wake up in the middle of the night due to noise and she kept assuring me that once I have a baby that will all change. I’m still not sure if I believe it. Time will tell.
metalia
said,
February 29, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I slept through a tar fire when I was living in Israel, and didn’t realize until I woke up, walked to the bathroom, and found my face COVERED IN SOOT.
Chris
said,
February 29, 2008 at 6:49 pm
His favorite show should totally be Friends. Come on, you know Chandler would crack him up.
marci
said,
February 29, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I wish I could sleep through Avery crying all night. Blasted night terrors!!!
Laurel
said,
March 2, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I can sleep through most things if I’m tired (which is most of the time). I’m not sure how this skill will translate to eventual motherhood, but it certainly is useful when you have three roommates!
Amanda
said,
March 3, 2008 at 1:39 pm
O that’s funny - I do that too!! I slept through (in fact fell asleep during) a hailstorm whilst sleeping in a caravan once… a caravan where the birds walking across the roof sounded like a herd of elephants!!! I also frequent a summer camp where I look after disabled teenage girls and my first year I would wake up when one of the girls in our tent woke up but never heard when my own charge would wake and someone would have to kick me lol! We recently had an earthquake in about 12 miles from where I live and I was awake at the time but I wonder if I’d have slept through had I been sleeping…
I do wish I’d been able to sleep through the almost daily fire alarms we had when drunken students set off the alarms in my hall of residence at uni though… the one time I did decide to ignore it a fireman came and told me off - I like firemen but not at 4am when I’m trying to sleep lol