I had heard of sleep studies, but did not realize all the wires and monitoring (and waking up) that goes into a sleep study. Evan snores in his sleep sometimes, usually when in his car seat. So his pediatrician had referred him to the pediatric sleep study doctor about 6 months ago. It takes a while to get seen because he was the only one in the state and there is a long waiting list. Luckily, a new doctor just joined his practice so hopefully things will speed up for us from here on out. We went two weeks ago to see the doctor at the Greenville Children's Hospital. He told us what to expect and told us there was a 3 month wait to get into one of the sleep study beds. They also did some measurements on Evan:
16.3 pounds
28 inches long
123 heart rate
71/47 blood pressure
98 - 100% oxygen level
We were put on the emergency call list in case anyone canceled. And lucky for us, within a week, we were in!
Evan and I arrived at the hospital by 8pm. I had no time to unpack and hardly any time to give Evan a bottle before they wanted him wired up and sleeping. I wish I had gotten there at 7pm if they were going to rush us so much to get in bed. Evan got his p.j.s on and I fed him his last bottle. (I had no time to get me ready for bed or anything else.) I did get a couple shots of him checking out his temporary crib.
We sat Evan on the crib and I tried to entertain him while she spent 45 minutes connecting loads of wires to his body. He was most entertained by her measuring tape and name badge. He never tried to pull any of the wires off, which completely floored me. He constantly tries to take off hats, clothes, or more. He usually pulls any little string or thread he sees. So it really surprised me that he just let her attach all these wires without trying to get them off.
I held him hovering over the crib to put him to sleep. It was not a comfortable position for me. After getting him settled and asleep, I was able to go unpack my things and get ready for bed. I did not get a good picture of the wires as he went to sleep because it was too dark in the room. The nurse came in every so often to check his wires and reattach any that were removed when he rolled over.
I kept hearing the 3 year old next door yelling and the code blue announcements in the hall. The room was insulated well from noise, but I could still hear the louder noises. Since I was attuned to each time Evan moved or breathed funny, I did not sleep well at all. I think the only time I slept was from around 2am to 4am.
At 5:15am, I was wide awake so I got up and got ready. At 5:50am, the nurse came in and woke up Evan. He did NOT want to get up that early. It took about 15 minutes to get all the wires off of him.
I put him into his car seat and he fell asleep in the car on the way to Granny & Papa Jerry's house. They fed him his first bottle when he woke up later.
We find out the results next week. We're hoping he just has a slight snore, but will not need tonsils or adenoids removed.