The 3 am Bandit

We have had so many visitors in the past month!  First Mikael, Che and Maile came to visit for a week, then Chris’ mom Jacqueline (Gigi) came to visit over Cooper’s birthday party weekend, and then my dad made a surprise visit for a couple days this past weekend.  With all the visitors we put Cooper in our room in a pack and play so our guests could sleep on the guest bed.

Cooper doesn’t fit very well at all in the pack and play because he’s so tall, but he’s a big bed and pillow hog so I don’t like him sleeping with us.  We put the pack and play at the foot of our bed and for the first two guests we had, he did pretty well at continuing to sleep through the night.  By the time my dad showed up Cooper figured out how to regularly climb out of the pack and play in the middle of the night.  Before he was just waking us up and cuddling with us.  That all changed the other night!

So Cooper woke up at 3:00 am and I nursed him and put him back in the pack and play.  At about 3:30 Scout started freaking out and rolling all over the floor itching her back and making gurgled growling noises.  This apparently woke Cooper up enough to get out of bed.  Well, I no longer sleep on high alert for him since he regularly sleeps through the night and puts himself back to sleep if he does wake up.

This means I heard him wake up at 3:30 but then he got quiet so I went back to sleep.  The next thing I know he is standing next to my head patting me, saying very loudly ‘poo!’ and pointing to his diaper.  It was 4:45.

I get out of bed and the dog blanket was put into his pack and play and the door to the guest bedroom and Charlotte’s room were open.  I assumed he had been up roaming around by himself.  I shut the doors, changed his diaper, nursed him again and put him back to bed (why oh why didn’t I put the baby gate up??).

I again heard him stir a bit, but then get quiet.  My alarm for work went off at 6 am and in runs Cooper from the hallway with a huge grin on his face.  I told Chris Cooper was awake and he looked in the pack and play and I said, ‘No awake as in running all over the place’.  While I got ready, Chris took Cooper downstairs.  When I finished and joined them Chris filled me in on what he found:

The bedroom doors to my dad and Charlotte were open again.  The tv was on, the computer had several new windows opened, his phone was playing music, the play-doh containers were all open and the play-doh was strewn about the office, the toilet lid and seat were up with a half a roll of toilet paper in the bowl, and there were office supplies outside on the patio.

Apparently while the rest of us slept, Cooper was a little 3 am bandit.  He took full advantage of his free reign of the house and got into a little bit of everything.  It makes me a little to think about what could have happened:

We leave the window in the laundry room (which is upstairs) open, so he could have fallen from the 2nd story to concrete below.  He could have fallen down the stairs.  He could have opened the front door and went for a midnight stroll or gotten hit by a car.  He could have drowned in the toilet.  He could have been electrocuted with any of the things plugged into the office.  He could have cut off his fingers with the scissors in the office.

So many things!!!  I’m not looking forward to moving him to a toddler bed any time soon!