All-Nighter

When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter? Why did you do it? How did you feel afterwards?

The last time I pulled an all-nighter was in the fall of last year. My zoo had to preform an emergency C-section on one of our monkeys. The baby and mother survived, but the mother rejected the baby in order to recover from the surgery. We had to hand raise the child.

Our little baby monkey required 24 hour care. It was an “all hands on deck” situation as we had to have enough people to cover all animal routines as well as baby shifts. I remember going in for my first midnight to 8am shift. I tried to sleep beforehand, but couldn’t. All we had to do during the midnight shift was to make sure the baby got her scheduled bottles and that nothing went wrong. We were allowed to sleep, but for someone who’s never raised a monkey before, you can bet it was impossible. Every time the baby moved, I had to check on her. Every time I felt myself drifting off, I’d startle awake with the paranoia of needing to check on the baby. She was fine every time, of course. Needless to say, it was a rough night. I was relieved when it was over and understandably cranky during morning rush hour. When I got home, I promptly passed out.

Thankfully, the baby was able to get reintroduced to her family. Her mother recovered from the surgery and accepted the baby back. It was as happy an ending as you could get, and definitely worth all those late nights.