So the sleep thing. Where to begin. We took Squeaker to a sleep specialist, who, after interviewing us and examining him, recommended a sleep study. Squeaker's tonsils, on the scale of 1-4 (with 4 being ginormous) are a 3+. It's likely that they're blocking his airway when he sleeps, adding to whatever weirdness seems to be going on with his adenoids. Even with the steroid nasal spray, he still snores and wakes multiple times a night.
I'd read some horror stories on the internetz by parents who had sleep studies done on their toddlers. Luckily, I read those stories, I should say -- because we were ready for it. Squeaker was well-prepped to expect "stickers" all over his face and a "tube for nose medicine" in his nose (actually, the cannula helped measure how much air he was getting, I think?, but he's used to getting his "nose medicine" every night, so we went with that explanation). He knew that he would be sleeping all night at "the doctor's" with daddy, and he knew that he'd need to leave all of the stickers on his face until he woke up in the morning. The Mister brought Squeaker's favorite stuffed monkey and a bunch of stickers, so that Monkey could also have the fun of getting all stickered up before bed.
Our boy was actually better prepared than I was, as it turned out. Because when the Mister sent me the photos of him that night, wires coming from his face, his head, his legs, a stocking cap covering his head, the tube in his nose, all I could think was "oh my god, my poor baby!!" My panicky side thought that he looked like he was in the ICU (I know, of course, that he didn't look anywhere near that bad, but it was my first reaction). So, naturally, I was up all night worrying about him.
As it turns out, Squeaker was fascinated by the whole process and had a great night's sleep, or so the Mister thought. "Sure, he woke a few times, but he went right back to sleep. Much better than normal." The Mister, on the other hand, barely got a wink, because each time Squeaker rolled over, some wire or another came unplugged and the sleep technician came into the room, turned on the light, fixed the wire, and left. Repeat ad nauseum all night long. They arrived at 8pm, got Squeaker all wired up by about 10pm, the poor kid passed out at about 10:30 and the tech woke them up at the ungodly hour of 5:45am. Then came the process of peeling off the stickers and washing the glue out of his hair. That was apparently the only time my boy cried. He came home with adhesive marks all over his face and body, but otherwise was in good spirits, excited to see me and tell me all about his adventure. The Mister looked like the walking dead. I didn't feel all that much better.
The results came within a week, and -- lo and behold -- the bottom line is: He Doesn't Sleep. What the Mister thought was a good night's sleep turned out to be 15 wakings, a handful of obstructive apneas, a handful of central apneas, and many many many hypopneas. The diagnosis was mild obstructive sleep apnea, plus restless leg syndrome. "Significantly decreased REM" is the one phrase that jumped out at me from the report. And this was on a good night. Imagine how bad his bad nights are. Our poor kid doesn't get any sleep. No wonder he's so insane during the days -- he spends most of his time being over-tired. Decreased REM can affect a kid's growth and cognitive abilities, not to mention overall health. And the whole concept of "he stops breathing multiple times a night" would make any parent freak out, I think.
So ... off we go in August to the ENT to have him evaluated for an adenoid / tonsillectomy. Let's hope that does the trick. I sure would like to have one kid sleeping through the night before the next one shows up, y'know?
(As I type this, I can hear him singing upstairs. Loudly. This is his new thing that he does when he's supposed to be going to sleep, in addition to hopping out of bed multiple times, throwing all of his blankets and stuffed animals on the floor, and climbing up on top of his bookshelf to pull apart the iPod speakers that are mounted high on the wall. Every night. I put him to sleep at 8:30pm. It's now after 10, and he's still wide awake. The Mister is on guard duty, telling him to be quiet, telling him to go back to bed, etc. Eventually, the kid just passes out. Of course, we'll hear from him in the middle of the night, and then again at dawn ... He actually "slept through the night" a few times this week -- i.e., woke once, and only because he'd peed through his pajamas. I realized yesterday that all of his 2-year molars broke through when we weren't looking, and we're guessing that's helping a bit. But this 2-1/2 hour bedtime routine -- oy!)
I've just spent the past few days reading your blog right up to the point just before Squeaker came into your life. You are a terrific writer, and it was when I got to your Elephants post that I realized why I was so compelled by everything you've written. EXACTLY.
Anyway, I'm just a random adoption/IF blog follower; I clicked across from Luna's blog. So this is me saying hello and to tell you I'll be following your blog from now on.
Posted by: Artemis | July 25, 2011 at 07:41 AM