I woke up Monday morning at 5Am to a tiny voice frantically telling me they had a nose bleed. My kids don't get nose bleeds. I activated the ejection button on my side of the bed at lightning speed so as not to wake the angry monster (with two finals to take that day) I was sleeping next to. I had already had my beauty sleep interrupted once that evening by wet jammie bottoms and a crying the Hamster, so I wasn't looking too pretty.

But bleeding 6-yr olds don't care how you look so I stumbled into the bathroom that was fast becoming a crime scene. Man! I was glad we had moved into a house with no carpet. Bud was crying, and I was trying desperately trying to remember what you do for a nosebleed and trying not to step on the blood.

Stuff the nostrils with something absorbent? Irrigate his face? My extensive medical training (yeah, right!) had escaped me, and my ability to think straight was directly proportional to my lack of sleep.

"Bud, it's OK. Sometimes noses just bleed. Did you bump your face on your brother's head? Did you fall out of bed onto your face? Did you put something in your nose? It's ok to lose a little blood."

MOM! This is NOT a little bit of blood. This is a lot. It's everywhere!"

"Dude, if you cut your arm off, THAT would be a lot of blood. See? It's not that bad, is it?"

"Oh, ok."

Oh yeah, tilt the head back! I got it. Sit the bloody boy on the potty and tilt his head back and pinch the bridge of his nose. I found out the next day that you tilt the head forward and pinch so blood doesn't go down the back of the throat. Anyway, we got it cleaned up and Bud was bathed and put back to bed until I realized that it was 6AM and my little day-flamingos (the opposite of night-owls around here) were bright and shiny and ready for the day to start.

The angry monster was even angrier at that point. Being woken up the alarm is bad enough, but being woken up by crying children 30 minutes before the alarm is even worse. But I yelled patiently explained that cleaning up bums and blood in the middle of the night isn't fun either. And that I had finals as well. And final projects due. And a landlord who hasn't given us back our deposit from 2 months ago yet who I'm going to have to take to small claims court.

But that's another post for another day...