Whew. Inhale. Exhale. Nothing like a visit from the local fire department to get the blood pumping!
And I know God was totally all over this. How do I know? Because just before all this started, Mike called to tell me he was leaving work early today. This very RARELY happens. He had been up working from home until about 1:30 AM and his boss told him to come home and get some rest.
As I'm finishing up lunch with Evan, getting ready to put him down for his nap... all the smoke detectors start going off in the house. I'm not talkin the little chirp when the battery is low. I'm talkin BEEP BEEP BEEP....BEEP BEEP BEEP through the whole house since they are all wired together. So while this is a great safety feature in the event of an emergency, it also totally sucks because you have absolutely no idea which one is the true source. FRUSTRATING!
So the first round of beeping- I figure this must be a fluke. Continue cleaning Evan up... more beeping. Couple minutes later- more beeping. The beeping is coming closer together, and this mama is FREAKING out. It's loud, it's coming from several rooms in the house (we have a total of 10 alarms in the house, two of which are from our old alarm system no longer in use). I plop Evan in his crib and race through the house, popping in and out of each room looking for any signs of fire or smoke, any unusual smells.... ANYTHING. I come up with nothing. I call Mike back, take Evan outside, and call 911.
Firetruck arrives a few minutes later, and I was relieved to see a familiar face- Nick just moved out from his parents' house directly across the street from us and now lives just around the corner. The firemen go in and check things out. A few minutes later they come back out and Nick shows me back in while holding an alarm.
"Miss Amy (I've known him since he was about 8 so this is really making me feel old!) we checked the house for carbon monoxide and that was all fine. This alarm appears faulty and we think this was the cause." As I proceed to tell him that is one of the old alarms from our alarm system we aren't using anymore, all the alarms go off AGAIN. Good grief! So Nick goes back upstairs to look around... says the alarm in Evan's room is flashing red so I bring him a new battery. He changes the battery and they all go off yet again. He takes the whole alarm down. We chalk it up to being an older alarm- it's dusty (we had an addition put on 2 years ago to make room for Evan, so there was a lot of construction dust etc). All seems quiet, so he assures me he'll be just around the corner and to let him know if it happens again.
I take Evan back up to his room and start changing his diaper- and as I hear the firetruck pull away, the alarms go off again. AAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!! I am about through the roof!! Thankfully {and this is where God steps in} Mike just walks through the door. And the alarms go off again as I'm explaining to him what all just happened. I would be a complete nut case if I was still home alone, just Evan and myself, while all these alarms continued to sound. I was still all worked up, but I felt much more at ease with Mike here to help handle things.
He proceeds to take down the alarm on the first floor- one of the original alarms in the house (built in 2000). It's quiet. Then the alarms go off again. He takes down the alarm in our master bedroom, the last original alarm in the house since a few had been replaced. More noise. Takes down the alarm in the basement, replaced in 2005 when the basement was finished before Justin was born. Replaces batteries in Kaylin and Justin's rooms. Quiet. Heart still pumping. Listening. Quiet. *WHEW*
Mike immediately went out to the store to buy more smoke detectors. He had replaced two original ones upstairs not too long ago, after the addition was complete, but still needed to replace two more up there. The one in the basement as well as the one on the first floor needed to be replaced as well.
Did you know that smoke detectors expire? We did know this and like I said I had bought replacements, but we didn't get around to replacing them all right away. Lesson learned! When checking on Kaylin and Justin's smoke detectors in their new rooms (part of the addition), Mike noticed that while he thought he had replaced the batteries before, they were in fact the factory originals- over 2 years old. Another lesson learned.
Please PLEASE be sure to not only replace your batteries every 6 months, but make sure you replace the entire alarm every 7 years- go by the manufacturer date inside the alarm. Change your batteries when you change your clocks. We will be very religious about this from now on- major wake up call for us!
***UPDATE***
Mike got all the outdated detectors replaced- and they started going off AGAIN. UGHHHHH!!!! And again, since they are all hard-wired together, it is extremely difficult finding the culprit. He found a loose wire in one- nope. Still went off. Took them down one by one. Still went off. Now thinking it may be the one in Kaylin's room- I recently put a Scentsy plug-in warmer in the outlet below he detector- wondering if the wax did something to the detector. Took down hers and Justin's- Mike went out to the store yet again to buy more detectors. All kids are in bed for the night- praying he can get new detectors up without issue and without waking anyone since we are not comfortable leaving them all disconnected overnight. Praying this gets resolved quickly and quietly!
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