Sophia's Sleep Study Story

Friday evening was the night of Sophia's sleep study. The day felt somewhat hectic to me, I had to pack up our stuff to stay overnight at the sleep center and was generally feeling nervous about the whole thing. Sophia was not supposed to sleep after 4pm and we had to be there at 7:30pm....and somehow keep her awake on the car ride over. Michael came home from work and we had to eat dinner quickly and then give Sophia a bath before we left. We gave ourselves about an hour to get there....and probably arrived at least half an hour early, I guess traffic wasn't too bad, although there was a storm that started up on our drive. Check in was easy, sign this, sign that, and then we were shown to a room with a hospital like crib and a cot and a sink. A very nice worker, Mr. Tremane, asked us some questions about how Sophia sleeps, some family history type questions, and then explained that after I fed Sophia her nighttime bottle, he would come in and hook her up around 8:45 or so. We had a good hour and a half to kill at that point. We would have brought some DVD's, had we known that we could. Instead, we flipped through the two channels (one was some sort of surgery channel....a weird choice and definitely not an option given what we were there for) and decided to just let Sophia play as much as she wanted. We put some toys in the crib with her and stood at the side so she could crawl all around and stand up and stuff. The following is a picture of just that. She seemed happy and had no idea of what was to come (and really we didn't either).

She fell asleep as I fed her her bottle, which I expected. I was hoping that Tremane would just be able to hook her up while she slept.....I was WAY wrong on that.....in that there was NO way she could've possibly stayed asleep during it. When he came in, he had Michael and I go on one side of the crib and he was on the other. At first, she seemed to be liking him and what was going on. He put these things on her arms, which he called "angel wings", that kept her arms from bending so she couldn't grab or pull at anything that was going to be on her head and face. I was so worried she'd be upset by that (I would totally freak out if I couldn't move my arms like I wanted to) but she seemed ok at first. He had to put all this goopy stuff on different spots where he was going to put the leads....Sophia put up with it for a minute, but then she started to shake her head all around and tried to get away from him. He would stick the lead to her head on the goop and try to hold it for a minute to get it to stay and she wanted none of that. So Michael and I had to hold her. As in, hold her still. She was NOT a fan. And so, not that she was unwarranted in doing so, she started to scream. I felt terrible. Michael looked like he felt terrible. We were trying to hold her while he stuck over 20 of these little electrode things with wires coming out of them to her head, neck, near her eyes, ears, etc and she was just screaming and thrashing against us. At one point, I felt so upset I wanted to just go out in the hall and take a break, but I didn't want to leave my baby. After he finally got everything where he needed to, he took some gauze and wrapped it around her head.....she looked like she had been in an accident and had some sort of brain injury or something....I was having the hardest time not crying just looking at her. The last things he had to attach to her was something to her toe to measure her oxygen levels and something under her nose, which had to be taped to her face. By the time this was all complete, it was about an hour later. Sophia was exhausted. Michael and I were exhausted. Tremane left and said that if we needed anything to just tell him, he was going to be watching/monitoring the whole night. I held Sophia, who couldn't get comfortable even in my arms due to the "angel wings" and tried to rock her and sing to her. I was singing Mary Had a Little Lamb (one of her faves) and really almost started to cry....she was just looking up at me, so tired and so sad looking, like she couldn't understand what was going on. I think I switched to a more upbeat song, like a Backstreet Boys song, which I have been singing to her a lot lately and she likes. Finally, I am sure it was from total exhaustion, she fell asleep.
After that, Michael and I sat on the little cot and just stared at her. Michael decided that he wouldn't stay because he snores a lot and didn't want them to hear him snoring and not be able to pay complete attention to Sophia. I didn't want him to leave, but I also didn't want anything to make us ever have to do this again. By the time he had texted me that he was home, it was 11pm. I sat in the rocking chair near her crib until about 12:30 and just watched her. Then I got into the little cot and stared at the ceiling or at Sophia for another hour. I think I finally did sleep from about 1:45 to 3, when Sophia must've tried to turn over or something, realized she couldn't, and woke up crying. So back to the rocking chair I went, rubbing her back until she fell back asleep. Periodically, Tremane would come in the room and lean over the crib and seemed to rub her back as well....maybe he was adjusting something on her? I have no idea. I never said anything and neither did he, but I am sure there was a reason for it. And if he was just checking on her, that was fine with me too.
I knew that they were going to wake us up at 5am and that Michael would be back around 5 as well. My internal clock (and the fact that I wasn't sleeping deeply anyway) woke me up at 4:45 and then the next 15 minutes felt like forever. Finally, Tremane came in, at the same time as Michael and we woke up our little sweet baby girl. Sophia doesn't really like being woken up much (who does?) and she was a little fussy at first. The following picture was taken by Michael right after we woke her up and Mr. Tremane had taken off one of the angel wings.

Doesn't it just break your heart? As he started to unhook her though, she seemed to forgive him for hooking her up in the first place....she smiled at him and pointed at him and seemed like her happy self. I guess she knew she was getting out of there! I know Mommy and Daddy were happy to be getting to take her home. She still had a ton of the goopy stuff in her hair when we left so around 6am when we got home, we put her right back in the bathtub. And then Sophia and Mommy had a nice long nap together.
We should hear from our pediatrician in about a week regarding the results of the sleep study. Now that it is over, I still don't know if it was worse or better than what I expected. Michael said the same thing. To us, it really was hard to see our baby like that......but.....there were no needles, the overnight stay wasn't due to any injury or sickness....we know that there are so many worse reasons to stay overnight in a hospital. But still, we hope it wasn't too traumatic of an experience for her and also that the results will be positive in finding out how we can improve her quality of sleep (and maybe get her to stop skipping breaths if possible). I appreciate that Children's Healthcare hires people that truly care about kids....Tremane was great with Sophia, very patient and gentle with her. He said that she was great, that usually babies take it a lot better than 3-4 year olds. I could see that. My nephew Cooper probably wouldn't even set foot in the room, let alone let someone hook things up to him and tie his arms down. I am sure a lot of parents take it harder than the kids do as well. If it didn't traumatize Soph, it sort of did me!
I am very glad that it is over. I am glad that we didn't have to wait a super long time to do it, the anticipation would've surely built it up into something much scarier. However......if for some reason they ever had to do it again.....um, no thank you!!!

Time Warp

Tonight is Sophia's sleep study...which I am quite nervous about....so to keep my mind off of it for a while I am going to blog about my evening a couple days ago....the NKOTBSB concert!!!

When I was in middle school (no need to specify exactly how long ago that was, haha) I was a huge New Kids on the Block fan. I had all the tapes (ugh, obviously it was light years ago) and posters taped to my door and my sister and I even had a couple New Kids dolls (I had Jordan and my sis had Joey...those were our favorites!)...to say fanatic was an understatement. My Dad said that the popular New Kids wouldn't last five years...in fact, he bet me $5 that they wouldn't! Well, Dad, you can pay me back that $5 now, cause the other night at the concert tens of thousands of screaming fans proved that no matter how many years have passed (let's just say more than five years has gone by) the New Kids on the Block are still awesome!

I never did see the New Kids in concert back when they were originally big. I was super happy to hear that they were going on tour again, and with another of my faves, the Backstreet Boys. When the Backstreet Boys were originally huge, I was in college...so...I had to kinda be a closet fan. My sister defined fanatic for the Boys, even going to see 2 of their concerts!

The concert was AWESOME!!! I thought I would feel like a super old fogey reliving my youth but instead it was SO much fun and I felt young again (well, somewhat young...I guess it's all relative!) and screamed my head off and sang at the top of my lungs. I was surprised how many of the older songs I remembered a lot of the words to. Only a few songs in and my throat was so sore! But that didn't stop me from scream-singing for the entire two hours the two bands performed. Even the presentation was great....one band would sing a song and then the lights would go down and when they came back up, the other band was there to sing a song, and so on.

A couple of notes about the bands....the New Kids on the Block...well, they sure aren't kids anymore!! Joey, my sister's fave and the youngest Kid, seemed to look the oldest to me! Jordan, my fave, still pretty much looked the same....maybe he has hit the Botox a bit in the last few years! Oddly, Donnie, a New Kid I formally didn't pay much attention to (well, I mean, other than the fact that he is the brother of Marky Mark) looked great....and I make this statement based on his awesome abs! Both bands still sing great....although I found myself really enjoying the Backstreet Boys songs even a bit more than the New Kids songs...something I thought would be totally opposite. And my former favorite Backstreet Boy, Nick....well, he is still my favorite. YUM!!

I thoroughly enjoyed my fun evening out with my sister, my friend Tracey, Amy, and the two Lindsey's. It is not often that I leave Sophia for a girls night. I am very glad that Sophia spent the evening having a Daddy/Daughter night while I had a great time screaming, singing, dancing to some great boy bands from my past. Before long Sophia will be singing along with both bands' greatest hits....especially since I have been playing the songs over and over since I got back from one awesome concert!!! :-) I love NKOTBSB!!!

Quick Update

Originally I was thinking Sophia wouldn't have to go in for her sleep study until mid to late July, after our vacation. But when I called Children's to set up the date, they scheduled us for June 24th...which is next week. Ok.

We had to fill out a questionnaire about her sleeping habits (they are good...as long as skipping a breath every now and then doesn't qualify as a habit) and got a several page email about what will happen and what to bring to the sleep study. It did mention that they will hook up things to her head (twelve connection points....her head isn't that big!) and chest and also attach something under her nose to monitor her breathing....which I know is the point of the whole thing but Sophia doesn't even keep a bow in her hair for very long before she pulls it out....I am thinking she isn't going to like sleeping with all these attachments. Should be a fun (long) night.

I know I shouldn't be worried and that kids probably get these all the time......but....she is my little perfect baby and I know seeing her all hooked up to everything and having to sleep in a hospital bed is going to be tough.

There will definitely be a follow up post about this topic....until then I will be saying prayers that it goes smoothly (as smoothly as it can) and that we can figure out what is going on with my sweet girl!

It Only Took 9 Months

Today Sophia Rose is 9 months old! I can't believe that in three short months she will be a year old. These nine months with her have flown by...I wouldn't mind if they slowed down just a bit! In the last month she has turned from helpless baby to little menace!! Just kidding. But she has been doing so much more and Mommy has to be very creative if I want to do anything on my own these days. Sophia is crawling everywhere now...it started as just dragging herself on her belly....but she gave that up for the much quicker, traditional crawling style. She has two teeth as of now, on the bottom, but I think that at least two more are going to be here soon. She drools like a little faucet. She is now pulling herself up on everything. My least favorite milestone thus far. Maybe because she occasionally face plants into our wood floors. She cries, because it hurts of course, but stops pretty quickly when she sees how Mommy freaks out about it!
Something that she has not picked up yet has been a cold or any sickness. Well, until now! I think I know where it came from.......last Thursday I took Sophia for her first class at Gymboree Play and Learn. We had a good time, there were about 10 or so other kids in the class, and Sophia had fun climbing and loved the bubbles and parachute part of the class. This was actually the first time that she had been around so many other babies in her age group and at first she just sat in my lap and stared at everyone. But she loosened up and interacted with some of the babies. The very next evening I noticed her nose was starting to run like a faucet. She slept terribly, because she was so stuffed up. Saturday was more of the same....very very runny nose and congestion. Sunday she had a little fever and developed a cough along with the runny nose. We called the nurse line that our pediatrician provides for us and after a lot of questions we were told that we were doing the right thing and to just keep an eye on her for if things got worse. Her 9 month appointment was today and the doctor discovered that she has a little ear infection! We have to give her an antibiotic and go back in two weeks....but Sophia is taking it like a trouper. She HATES having her nose wiped a hundred times a day but other than that and not quite sleeping as well as usual she is still her happy self.
I am thankful that I was able to keep her away from germs and sickness this long...although I know that I couldn't keep her from getting sick forever! I guess I did wish I could shelter her from illness and other unpleasant things...but I guess it is good that I learn now that her whole life I won't be able to protect her from everything, just that I should do my best to protect her from the things I can and take care of her and be there for whatever she needs when the things come along that I can't protect her from.
Next on the list for my sweet girl.....she has to have an overnight stay at Scottish Rite for a sleep study. Even though I am nervous about this I know it is the first step in figuring out why she snores like an old man and sometimes skips a breath when she sleeps. And after that we would visit an ENT with the results of the study to hopefully figure out how to solve whatever it is that is affecting her sleep. I am confident we will be able to find out what is going on and the best way to fix it. I am sure there will be more posts on this particular topic as it unfolds.
On a more positive note, Sophia has been saying Mama a lot, probably my favorite milestone so far. She has changed so much in the last nine months. I know that walking will come soon, and then talking, eating more and more foods....I'm excited for these coming milestones, but am happy where she is right now too.....I love my sweet nine month old baby girl!! :-)