A Night in the Life

A Night in The Life

Night Duty

•The only 1 of 25+ people awake all night

•official shift starts at 2200 ends at 0715

•checks every half hour from 2200 to 0600

•cleans 7 bathrooms every night 

•does the kitchen laundry

There you have it. That’s night duty. Oh. You want more. Ok. I can do that. 

2200 it’s the beginning of my shift. My bathrooms are already all cleaned and the kids have been (mostly) sleeping since 2000. I put our newest child (Kareena, 4months) back in her crib on my first night check. A bunch of our staff have been offf partying since early evening so I’ve been first nurse teacher since 1630. Kareena did not want to be put down after she fell asleep so she’s been held most of the evening. 

2330 The partiers are backs and most everyone has gone back to bed. A few stragglers roam around finding food and water and showing visiting family members around, but for the most part I’m some. Kressida (7mo) wakes up so I fix her the bottle she is sure to want. Meanwhile Jessie (1yr) starts crying and wakes up the other two girls in second nursery. Despite all being awake at once they’re all sleeping again pretty soon and I head back down the long hall to my station in the dining room. 

0145 it’s been pretty quiet for the last 2 hrs. Tony 3 yr old Alice came crying to the dining room but entry right back to sleep when I took her back to to bed. Kitchen laundry is done and folded. 

0330 I seem to have picked the quietest night to write about.  Last night Jessie was crying every 7 minutes and I was trying to get frauds stuff done in the kitchen. The night before Landon was standing silently by the kitchen door every 10 minutes from 0200-0400 and I’d jump every time I walked out of the kitchen door. That 10 minutes isn’t even an exaggeration unless I had just been sitting by his bed for 20 minutes.  Then he’s wait maybe 15 minutes before coming to the kitchen. But now that I’ve just talked about what a quiet night it’s been it’ll probably get crazy. Only 1 of the 3 first nursery babies has been up yet so I might hear a few wails from there pretty soon

0400 the continuous “Rockabye Baby” that comes over the minutes from 1st and 2nd nursery is interrupted by a fuss. Finally someone awake to make my night a bit more interesting. I fix Alexander a bottle but he refuses to go back to sleep in the bright living room. His wife black eyes drink in everything of this room that he doesn’t get to see very often. It’s nice to have company so I hold him awhile before I put him back in his crib. Soon Karinnah wakes up and seems to think it’s morning. 

0445 ahhh yes my night is turning out interesting after all. Karinnah is still awake. Avril has climbed out of her crib and it’s no use putting her back as she’ll either climb out again or wake the other kids. Or both. 

I do my 5 o’clock check with a baby in one arm and a 3 yr old clinging to my other hand. Seeing as it’s 5 the early rising kids can at last get out of bed. At least 1 or 2 come out of every room. Including Kressida from first nurse. Back in the living room I have a baby on the floor surrounded by 4 or 5 admirers, a baby in my arms, and someone waking up every few minutes. 

Finally, after my 0530 check, I take everyone to the playroom where there isn’t so much to get into. I anxiously await 0600 when the play duty girls come down, and hope they might be a few minutes early. A dozen of our 16 kids are sleepily roaming around the playroom, also hoping the playduty girls will be down early so they can get out the toys. One of the babies is sleeping on my lap (I don’t understand how, with all the noise and commotion) and the other one is communicating quite loudly that she wants her morning bottle. Usually only 5 or 6 of the kids are up before 6 so things ere getting a bit out of hand. 

Finally at 0600 I can escape the ruckus and hand the big kids over to the 2 sleepy girls who aren’t very happy that they have to do early play duty again. Once I have the first nursery babies settled back down I turn to second nurse to comb and dress the 3 girls in there. 

0630 is not my best time when I’ve been up all night as Avril found out. After second nurse are ready for the day and herded back into the playroom I return to first nursery. There again I get those 3 ready for the day and then I try not to fall asleep til the first nursery teacher takes over at 0715. Papa has it figured out that it’s pretty hard to stay awake those last 45 minutes in 1st nursery so he usually shows up around 0700 to make sure I don’t sleep too much. 

0715 My official shift is over. Back in the dining room I finish up the diaries I had started just before things got busy. Every night I have to write a few words about how each child slept. Next on my list is breakfast (or is it supper?) and then I fall into bed between 0730 and 0800. 

That’s just one night. Most nights I found something to do in the kitchen to keep me from being bored and falling asleep. I fear I was a bit too ambitious there. A few nights I didn’t do much for fear that a new kids would be up every 2 minutes but mostly they slept through the night. Two night one of my friends staying up with me until 1 o’clock which was very much appreciated. And another highlight was the night Landon slept til after 0600 instead of his normal 0430.  And Pardon the lateness. My night duty week started June 10th with my last night being the 16th. I was happy to be done but I did like the solitude.