to sleep

It's been a busy couple of days here at the ol radiant house... the MOG came back from his trip on Monday afternoon, and then we ran around like the proverbial chicken (my apologies, Beth and Eva) doing errands and such that we always have to do when the Man is back... then Tuesday night R2 had a sleep study. This has been scheduled for months and months, and so I was looking forward to it, even though hospital sleep is no sleep at all.

Why a sleep study? Well, you can read the link up there for other reasons, but our main concern is sleep apnea. R2 tends to stop breathing for several seconds on a regular basis while he is sleeping. Not breathing is not acceptable around here, unless you are just saving up your breath for a good solid screaming fit, or trying to make it through a particularly bad diaper change.

We left the house at 6:30 with R2 in very high spirits due to pancakes for dinner, and the joy of getting to get in the van while Toby didn't. You know that scene in Hope Floats (tissue alert!) where the little girl runs by her daddy's car screaming for him to take her with him? Toby kinda did that, which thrilled R2, because the vengeance and triumph section of his brain is quite functional.

He remained cheery and upbeat while we waited and waited and waited to get in, and then he sat on a chair and chuckled through Sesame Street episodes while they attached... man... like 20 something wires to him.
It took over an hour and then they wrapped him all up in stretchy bandage stuff and made a big wire ponytail. Still, he was a pretty happy guy. She started getting on his nerves when she put in the nasal cannula, but whatever, lady. The nurse was great, really gentle and trying to give R2 lots of warning before she did anything, but he was mainly disgruntled that she was talking during his show.

So finally, it was time for him to go to sleep. I had to go and wait in a lounge, because they try to set up his normal sleep routine, i.e. alone in the dark. I sat in the lounge and read a book and ate a candy bar and waited, and then in an hour or so I went in the control room to see if he was asleep yet. He was, kinda. Except that there were wires taped to him everywhere and he was not in his bed and there was something sticking in his nose and every time he took it out the lady had to come back and put it back in.

Oh, so they have a camera over his bed, and they can close up on his wires and his chest or mouth or whatever to keep an eye on him. The camera doesn't reach over in the corner, where I "sleep" but the audio feed does. What? Yes, they have a mic on the room, which is kinda awkward when you are talking to your kid, or flushing the toilet or whatever.

He wiggled around for what seemed like hours, and then we "slept" for 8 hours or so, with a nurse with a flashlight coming in every hour or so to reattach stuff, or adjust.

Around 7 am, they came in and woke us up and kicked us out, after another traumatic blood draw. From the minute he woke up, he was signing "school" so after I took him home and cleaned most of the glue and such from his hair, I gave in and let him go to school. We should get the results from the testing back in 2 weeks... stay tuned.