Things that go beep in the night

After an uneventful Thanksgiving, I trudged upstairs to try and get to bed earlier than usual. It was close to 11pm by the time I had finished brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. I snuggled into our bed with my novel, laying down quietly next to Corwin who was fast asleep nested in between some pillows. Being a relatively cold night, Pirx (our siberian husky) had also decided to join us on our bed and was already in a twitchy paw sleep. I had only started to read my book when Corwin started stirring and then started crying. Ahh, midnight feed.... I sat up and held him close and started nursing. Not 5 minutes into nursing there was suddenly a "beep!" from the hall outside our bedroom. Smoke detector battery.

Pirx's ears perked up and he lay on the bed with his head up looking alarmed. Corwin had pulled off my breast and was also alert to this new and unfamiliar noise. I encouraged Corwin to continue nursing and tried to settle Pirx down again.

"Beep!"

Pirx was up and out of bed quickly and Corwin had pulled off again, confused at the noise. Pirx was already displaying his panicky tendency when we have power outages and he hears a similar beeping sound (I believe from the batteries hooked up to our desktop computers). He skulked to our bathroom and finding no place "safe" he looked at me as I tried to get Corwin to nurse.

"Beep!"

And with that last beep Corwin clamped down with all six of his teeth on my breast. "OWWWWW!" I yelled as I yanked my mangled nipple out of his mouth. Corwin looked at me absolutely freaked out and horrified and opened his mouth wide and started wailing, big tears forming and rolling out of his eyes. Damnit!! By this time, Pirx had run into our main bath and I heard some strange and unfamiliar noises coming from there. I tried to soothe Corwin, but then

"Beep!"

"Bloody hell," I said and plunked a screaming and crying Corwin into his crib. I peeked into the main bath as I headed down the stairs to find a replacement battery. Pirx had managed to get himself into the tub (an absolute first since he was a pup and had a bath in there) and was cowering behind the shower curtain. I chuckled to myself at my brave dog as I went to the basement to find a 9V battery.

Through continuous wailing from Corwin, I was grateful to find a new battery in the basement and got prepared to eliminate the beeping. Pirx had run out of the bathroom at some point and as I got back to the top of the stairs, he was standing in our bedroom doorway trembling in absolute terror.

"Pirx, everything is fine," is apparently translated into dog speak as "Go hide - the world is exploding" as he quickly ran back into the bathroom and I observed what the odd sounds were before, as he awkwardly climbed into the bathtub again.

Corwin of course was still screaming like someone was trying to rip off his limbs. I called out to him but since he couldn't see me he kept shrieking. As I tried to reattach the smoke detector, stupid flecks of sprayed on builder's popcorn ceiling rained down into my eye. I must have been quite a sight, dressed in only my nursing bra and pajama bottoms, standing on a stool in the middle of the hall cursing and trying to soothe a screaming child and convince my dog that it's not the end of the world.

Finally it was attached and the screaming had not let up. Pirx was still hiding and but thankfully it was no longer beeping. I decided that the moment needed some documentation so I grabbed my camera and produced the following photos from my late evening.

I returned to Corwin after the photo session and picked him up and tried to go back to soothing and nursing. After he'd take a few sucks, he'd pull off and cry at me again, reiterating his disgruntled position and the horrible treatment he had to endure. It was close to midnight by the time he quieted down and I decided that reading was not in the cards and turned out the light.