Brrrrr

Our heater stopped working about 5 days ago. Day 1: It worked in the morning and then, about mid-day, it stopped. We put a service request in with our home warranty company and didn't think much of it.
Day 2: Chuck was on call the next day and night, so the baby and I stayed home and moved a lot to keep warm. I decided to check on our service request, looked up the number and pulled out the paperwork. To my dismay, as I sat waiting for a representative to take my call in the order in which it was received, I found that our home warranty didn't cover our heating and a/c units. I hung up and called Chuck to break the news and tell him we needed to figure out who else to call for service.
Day 3: The next morning, I was awakened early by a screaming baby. She had woken up cold and miserable :( so I brought her to bed with me and we were able to sleep a couple more hours. I called my mom and dad to ask if they had any advice before we called a service rep. Mom said to try and find the pilot light first and then call someone. Well, I'd rather be cold inside the house than cold under the house (that's where our unit is), so I had to wait for Chuck to get home. In the meantime, I looked over the paperwork for our warranty again and realized it did, in fact, cover the heat, thank the Lord. Chuck was finally able to get under the house around 4pm, but couldn't find anything that indicated a pilot light. He then called our warranty company, only to find out that we had not yet been matched with a service provider. We were matched over the phone, and we called the company to see what time they could come. They were swamped. It might be tomorrow before they could come, they said. *shiver* Ok, so our heat will be fixed the next day at the latest.
We decided to spend the night in a hotel for the baby's sake (and mine). This part of the story could be a whole other post, so I'll try to be brief. Eden chose that particular night to sleep from 9pm to midnight and then be up talking, crying or just sucking on her fingers staring into space the rest of the night. Of course, all this activity was not confined to her bed. If she was in her bed, she was screaming, which you can't really ignore in a hotel room. So, from midnight to 2am, I held her and rocked her and sang to her and glared at her and shuushed her because Chuck was trying to get some sleep (he'd only slept a couple of hours at the hospital the night previous). She really was dog-tired at that point, but wouldn't or couldn't go to sleep. I thought I'd let her cry it out in her crib for just 15 minutes so I could lay flat for just that long. I did, and she cried. Chuck got up to take a shift, and then brought her to bed with us to see if that would work. Nope... fussing and writhing and slapping us in our faces and pulling our hair was all she wanted to do. I couldn't stand it any more and got out of bed to rock her again. I told Chuck to just go back to the house, bundle up, and get some sleep. He did around 4am. I let her crawl around the hotel room until she just sat on the floor near her crib and cried then I brought her back into the bed with me and FINALLY she fell asleep. We slept from about 5:30 to 8:30am. I really don't know if it would have been better to just stay home. If I was going to be out of bed for most of the night, I'm glad I had a warm room to be in. The experience just wasn't quite what we pictured.
Day 4: We got a call at 1pm to let us know the service tech would be there before 3pm. He came and voila! fixed the switch. (turns out there's no pilot light) We had heat!!! Needless to say, we cranked it up. A few hours later, no heat. That's right, it's not working again. A call to the service company reveals that it's no quick fix this time, a part has to be ordered and it will take a week to receive it. Chuck prays that evening that our heat would be fixed as soon as possible for the baby's sake. We make it through the night with a brand new space heater in the baby's room and an extra layer of clothes and blankets for us.
Day 5: Today. The same guy comes back over around 9:30 to check on exactly what part is needed. He reminds me that it may take a week to get and adds that depending on the possibilty of backorder, it could take TWO weeks... or they might also have a similar part in their warehouse, but don't count on it. I told him we were praying for the soonest possible fix. He came back an hour later with a part that they found in their warehouse. Praise the Lord!
The heat is blowing from the vent onto my feet as I type and it is truly wonderful.