Oh My GOSH Fiona was trying to get us to throw her out into the street last night!!!! I have four finals this week and was lucky enough to have only scheduled at 8am. THIS MORNING. We had our normal nighttime routine last night -- a little later than usual because Pete was running through my Audiology flashcards with me: Ask the dogs if they're ready for bed, dogs scurry off toward their crates, we go get some kibbles, give kibs to the dogs, latch the crate doors, go down the hall to our room to get ready for bed -- you get the picture.

Well last night went all as planned, until about 30 seconds after we climbed under the covers FIONA STARTS BARKING HER HEAD OFF!!! After about 15 minutes Pete gets up to see if she needs to go out -- he lets her out, she goes, he puts her back to bed. Ten minutes goes by and she starts up again, by this time I am trying earplugs....Pete gets up AGAIN and lets them out of their crates -- I think he gave Fi some food this time (we were all about the negative reinforcement last night). This time when he put her back to be he made her wear her gentle leader which usually works for settling her down. Ten more minutes of silence....you see where this is going....
After about TWO HOURS of nonstop barking Pete goes to sleep on the on the sofa so the dogs can be out of their crates and just sleep in the living room with him. Everything seems okay for maybe 5 minutes until JOSIE starts wigging out in our bedroom! She was going CRAZY with this roll-ball scratch thing she has until I had to get it up and take it away. After I took it away she decides she's going to scratch on the bedroom door to be let out. I figure the dogs have settled so I open the door a crack to let her out and crawl back under the covers. In a flash of a second there is a giant black lab on my head! (Poor Hannah, she had nothing to do with all this barking and waking up in the middle of the night -- but when presented with a fresh cat and/or a warm human in bed, she's going to pursue) I can't really remember what happened next (it was around 1:30am after all) but it involved me carrying Josie to the bedroom door only to meet Pete, who was trying to wrangle the two dogs away from our bedroom. It somehow resolved itself and I got about 5 1/2 hours of sleep -- poor Pete got about 5 -- and apparently the dogs slept ON TOP of him on the sofa!
So that was our night -- my final is over, I did fine, I only have one more to go (Friday at 1pm). If Fiona barks tonight we're not getting up for anything. I just wanted to share our trauma and point out how wonderfully thoughtful Pete was to try to give me some pre-test ZZZs.

UPDATE: yes, of course, now that it's daytime, Hannah and Fiona are both sacked out on their bed in the corner of the living room seemingly wondering why we kept them up all night :)

2nd UPDATE: yes, Pete and I have discussed how, someday, after the wee-est Crawford has arrived, 5 hours of sleep will seem like a day at the spa.