Things that go BUMP in the night

allnurses Guide · Nov 9, 2015

It's oh-dark-thirty, the house is quiet / everyone's asleep, and all of a sudden I hear *something* make a clatter in the house.
I check on the patient (obviously), but everything appears to be in place. Ventilator is still ventilating, pulse ox is 97%, patient snoring blissfully.
What in the heck was that noise????
Then I remembered seeing a mousetrap on the kitchen counter the other day. Sure enough, a fuzzy gray dude/dudette had met his/her demise.
'Twas the month before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Now you're going to have to listen for the teenie-tiny footsteps of it's relatives who organized a search party . . or Sugar Plum Fairies but do they make noise?

The place I work at most often has a regular visitor to check for strange things, it's the police helicopter with the spotlight going around and around and around . . as long as the maniac doesn't run in the client's house I'm good with it.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Nov 9, 2015

Eons ago I was working an overnight vent case, and at random intervals was hearing electronic music. Kid was asleep as was everyone else. Every time I would sit down in the kitchen, I would hear it again. Turned out to be a motion activated teddy bear had fallen down behind the couch- and every time the furnace kicked on, it vibrated that wall juuuust enough to set it off.

Another time I spent the entire night hunting down a cricket- turned out to be a crib mobile I was literally sitting next to.

allnurses Guide · Nov 9, 2015

Eons ago I was working an overnight vent case, and at random intervals was hearing electronic music. Kid was asleep as was everyone else. Every time I would sit down in the kitchen, I would hear it again. Turned out to be a motion activated teddy bear had fallen down behind the couch- and every time the furnace kicked on, it vibrated that wall juuuust enough to set it off.
Another time I spent the entire night hunting down a cricket- turned out to be a crib mobile I was literally sitting next to.

The topic of talking toys! Ack I just had a flashback of the time my then 4 year old step-daughter shot out of her room like a panic-stricken little human cannonball because in her sleep she rolled over on the paw of a bear from Grandma. It blasted a different loud digital Christmas Carol if you pressed each of it's 4 paws. In her case it was Jingle Bells that inflicted the psychological trauma.

Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B · Nov 10, 2015

I had a case where a toy would randomly turn off in the middle of the night. I guess the design has a crazy long standby time, because at like 1AM I would here it laugh and say "good by"

brillohead, ADN, RN · Nov 10, 2015

Second mouse-in-a-trap about an hour after the first one.... but I knew what the noise was that time! LOL