Sleep Study

I wish I had brought my camera. That may have made this the best post ever. As it is, you will have to be satisfied with a dry narrative of all the details of having a sleep study done for sleep apnea for a particular very cute little 4 yr old girl. Just feign interest, it's ok.

We got to the sleep lab about 8 pm, filled out about 15 pgs of paperwork and medical history, then Elisabeth watched a movie for 30 min while they attached over 30 electrodes and various monitors on her head, face, chest, feet and legs (this is where the camera would have made this post worth it. She looked craZy!! and if you're really interested, go here to read more about what they do). She was very patient and cooperative while they hooked her all up. We all thought this might turn out to be easier than we anticipated. Haha!!

She watched the movie a little longer and then decided she wanted to go to bed. It was about 9:15. She usually goes to bed at 8:30 but had fallen asleep in the car on the hr long ride to the children's hospital. I thought she actually still might go to sleep easily. Funny me.

Finally, after endless questions about the breath monitor in her nose and mouth, and moving wires around and pulling up blankets, examining the glowing red light on her foot, telling me (again and again and again) "k - g'night, I'm going to sleep now" - finally at about 10:45 she fell asleep. I had actually brought a book and a reading light thinking I might be up a bit longer than her after she went to sleep. hahaha, again, funny funny me.

The techs came in about 11:15 to adjust some of the monitors or something. I was still awake, of course. Laying there on a pull-out chair bed. And then a little later Elisabeth started snoring and making gasping sounds. This was good because that's why we were there, after all. But it made it hard for me to sleep. That and her nightlight, and the humming of the monitors and computers. And then the techs came in about 4 more times to move things around. A couple times as they were retaping things to her face, they woke her up and she cried. Or she wanted her stuffed elephant. Or she wanted the door completely shut.

Anyway - I felt like I was watching the clock all. night. long. Just waiting for morning. They told us they'd wake us at 6-6:30 to take off all the stuff. I guess I slept a little somewhere in there. But not much.

At 6:30 they woke us up and disconnected her and tried to wipe some of the electrode goop out of her hair. We left about 7 and drove an hr home. Zac had stayed home and got the kids ready for school and then went in to work late. So I took the big kids to school. Got Samuel off on the bus. Gave Elisabeth a bath and tried to get all the gunk out of her hair. And then she and I went back to bed and tried to sleep the rest of the morning.

We will hear back from her pediatrician with the results in about 2-3 weeks. And then we'll find out if she's actually stopping breathing and whether or not she'll be getting her tonsils out to fix it. Abigail had the same problem and had her tonsils taken out at age 5 - so I am pretty sure the same thing is happening. Anyway. We'll see.

And that's one more ordeal crossed off my mental list. On to the next . . .
Thanks for caring (or pretending to care). :)