Sleep Study

Wow, thanks for all the encouraging notes in the guestbook. really made my evening. I just grabbed something to eat after getting Owen to sleep, now I thought I'd update you real quick...

It was an aweful drive down here. Rainy and dark. And we were running late. I am all tense from clutching the steering wheel so tightly. I just hate passing semi's in those conditions. You can hardly see.

Anyway, since we were running late I literally dropped the kids off at the door to Mindy and Tim and headed straight for the hospital. We made it on time. But it was cutting it close. If you are more than 15 minutes late to a sleep study they make you reschedule. So whew!

It took an hour to get him all hooked up. You won't believe it when I post the pictures. (I'll try to tomorrow when I get home). He has 11 electrodes on his head. Some by his eyes and on his cheeks and chin. He has 4 on his chest and legs. The pulse ox on his toe and two belts to monitor breathing. He was soooo patient while they hooked all this on him. He only protested when they put the nasal canula and flow monitor on his nose. Then there is all this gause stuff wrapped around his head and chin. You can only see his eyes and mouth, bearly. Plus he has his favorite thing, arm splints, on again so he won't pull anything off. He looks pretty funny. Doesn't look comfortable at all to me.

I held him to calm him down from having his nose messed with, then layed him down and gave him his burp cloth. He sucks on one to go to sleep. Had to hold it there for him since he couldn't use his hands. That frustrated him. But I'd say he fell asleep within 5 minutes with no fuss. I stayed in the room about 5 more to make sure then went to get some food at McDonalds downstairs.

Basically, after the first 45 minutes of getting "hooked up" to all these wires, you begin to wonder "why are we doing this again?" It just is not something fun to put your baby through. Of course none of it hurts him, but still. It makes holding your kid down for a shot seem like no big deal. It's over after 2 seconds. Holding your baby down for an hour is not so fun. Thank goodness this is Owen we're talking about and he was busy flirty most of the time with the tech. We sang songs and did things to distract him from it all. He didn't like me holding his arms to keep him from grabbing the wires. or holding his head still, etc. I hope this is the last sleep study we ever have. I think it gets harder as they get older. When he was an infant, he couldn't do much, now he realizes he's being restrained.

Well, I should probably get some sleep. If he sleeps well, we may be done at 5:00am.

good night.