TMI Tuesday: Power Outage

As I was getting ready for bed last night I could hear the wind screaming against the windows and doings it’s best Jethro Tull impression with our chimney. I guess we were on the wrong end of the thirty percent chance of rain. The wind continued with relentless gusts as my wife and I recounted the day and not long after we both shut our eyes the room went completely dark. With echoes of thunder and strobes of lightening filling every corner of the house, we knew that this was going to be one storm that our son was not going to be able to sleep through. Just as we finished vocalizing that thought our son proved us right.

He was already having some issues staying asleep lately and this meteorological front was the final piece in ensuring that he completely woke up from his peaceful slumber. We could hear him rustling in his crib between the rumbles and as the rain pelted the roof and the waterfall filled the windowsill, he became more and more vocal. As soon as the crying overpowered nature, we knew it was time to comfort him so we got up, rummaged in the nightstand for a flashlight, and prepared for the long night.

As soon as we walked into the room and began trying to sooth him he calmed down and went back to sleep (well, maybe the second time). What ended up getting him was the fact that the electric decided to start stimming, turning on for a second or two every five or ten minutes for about an hour… just enough to wake him up. The other thing that wasn’t helping was the fact that our son was beginning to overheat. He is a little space heater and needs to be kept cool so he was stripped down to a single layer for the night.

Surprisingly, PECO was actually pretty close to their estimate from earlier in the evening as power was restored two hours later. At that point we could all rest a little better and home that we would be able to recover relatively quickly in the morning. It was already going to be a long day for us and now we just added lack of sleep to the mix. It looks like it is going to be a late morning and early night for all of us… it was actually the first morning that I can remember our son not greeting me with a wide smile. Instead, I got a nearly silent snore.