Ever wonder what you would do with 5 kids (3 that would need to be carried) if your fire alarm went off in the middle of the night? I have! Especially when Shane's on a business trip. When they were a few months old, I made sure there was always an empty laundry basket under Ava's crib. My plan was, I'd put all three in there and adrenaline would help me carry them downstairs and outside as I got Zoe & Ty out the door too. We've never actually PRACTICED that drill, because I think (although a smart idea and a great safety move) the kids are too young to understand it's a "drill" and getting them out of bed from a dead sleep means at least 2 hours to get everyone BACK to sleep. Of course, now that the triplets weight 25, 20 & 16 pounds and are the size they are, I don't think the laundry basket plan would really work. I'd probably hand Ava to Zoe and hope that they'd get extra coverage in my "keep us safe" prayer that I'm sure I'd be saying.
Well, last night, we learned learned some valueable lessons (rest assured there WAS NO FIRE and we are ALL OKAY but this was NOT a planned event):
A) When the Fire Alarm goes off at 12:30 am, it's not that hard for Mommy to jump out of bed, fly down the hall & punch in the reset code. I think I probably could have beat Usain Bolt in a 100 meter dash.
B) Panic doesn't hit full force if you don't immediately smell smoke or see flames even though you are awaken by the extremely loud Fire Alarm.
C) Not all 5 kids will be awaken by the extremely loud alarm...nor will the presence of the Fire Chief wake them. The only one that woke up was Zoe...and man alive was she upset!
D) Our local Police & Fire men are very friendly at 12:30 am.
As you can gather from the above lessons, our alarm went off in this morning. For no reason. Since we have a central monitoring system, and it was the middle of the night, they automatically dispatch the police and fire department. Although my heart was racing, I really was rather calm. A quick check proved there was no fire, it was more the fear of the alarm going off again and waking up more kids. The Fire Chief said he could bring his men in and they could use some sort of heat lamp thing that would show any heat source, but he didn't think it was necessary. It was probably a glitch in our system and would probably happen again.
He was right.
But thankfully, it didn't happen until this morning at about 10:30 am. I had already "briefed" Becca about the possibility and what to do if it went off. Sure enough, as we were heading into Kohl's this morning (for some back-to-school shopping) my cell phone went off. Becca handled it like a champ. And as soon as I got home, I was on the phone with the alarm company.
Just another "average" day here in Higby Land.
4 comments:
oh my gosh, that would have scared me to death! i am so glad it was just a glitch though and not a real fire and everyone is safe and sound! hope it is fixed now!
Our smoke detector did that a few times last week! Scared the poo outta me and didn't even wake the boys.
Hi y'all, yes we are still in the south and loving it!
Sounds like such excitement at the Higby Haven!
We, M,M, and I wanted to wish the gang a great first week of school. Sadly, we will be subjected to beach-front living yet another week! Keep me posted about how everything goes!
Love, Tracy
Oh my! I must say that I'm impressed that you have an evacuation plan--laundry basket and all. Is the alarm all fixed so that you can all sleep through the night for school?
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