Sleep Study Scheduled

For April 7th

At The Dr.s appointment all went well. They just asked a million questions of her sleeping habits. How often does she wake at night? How long has sleeping issues been a problem? Does she sleep in her own room? How many hours of sleep does she get at night? What do we think is waking her at night? Describe what she is doing? How often does she do that during the night? Does she take in alot of sugar or caffeine? Does she nap during the day, if so how long? Does anyone in the family have sleeping issues? Does she seem awake or asleep? How does she wake, Happy, Moody? The list just went on and on. We were there for 2 hours! Then they just did a routine exam on her checking for body markings, reflexes and such. It was hard to answer alot of these questions because her sleep pattern is all over the place. Typically its a 20-30 minute fight to get her to sleep sometimes it takes an hour we start at 8:30 thats when Caleb goes to bed impossible to get her down before him. So she is most often in bed by 9:00-9:30 during the week sometimes its later. Weekends its whatever goes because Caleb is hyped up because he gets to stay up and it rubs off on her. So its not unusual for her to be up at 11:00 on the weekends but we do try to push 10:00 bedtimes of the weekends, doesn't really bother me because I'm a night owl but those nights to her are no different than the others she will still wake often.


Now during the night goes as follows, lets take last night for example she fell asleep after a 20 minute struggle and that was 9:25. We put her in the bed and come 11:15 she started the tossing about and started screaming. So we got her and put her in bed with us. I know we probably shouldn't but its the only way we get SOME sleep if not we are up and down all night checking on her making sure she is ok during these movements. Well she tossed about and cried out every 30 minutes last night, she definitely isn't getting the sleep she needs.
Ok now we do have easier nights and those consist of her being in bed by 9:30 and not waking till 2 or 3am but the rest of the morning is shot she will do the movements from then till my alarm goes off at 6:15. Now when I get up and get ready she is in a dead sleep then 6:50 she pops out of bed raring to go!


Naps vary during the week, well the days she has school she has to be at school at 8:30 which our day has already started at 6:50 for her because as soon as those little feet hit the floor she is in the kitchen wanting her waffle and milk. Caleb has to be at school at 7:20 so I'm back and forth all day seems like. Anyways she gets out at 12:30 so after I pick her up we come straight home which is only 10 minutes away. Soon as we walk through the door she searches for her blanket and crawls up in my lap and is out in a matter of minutes. Now why cant she do this at night time? Now she only gets an hour and 15 minute nap because Caleb gets out at 2:25. Poor gal! On her off days she will take a nap anywhere from 20 minutes to a hour and a half, depending on how long I'm willing to hold her. Spoiled I know!!!!


Well the Drs think it can be many of things Seizures, Restless Legs, Sleep Apnea, dreams and many other possibilities. We check in at 7:30-8:00 pm that evening they hook her up and they wake her at 5:30-6:00am and unplug her and we go home and wait for the results which take up to 3 weeks to go over the whole nights worth of testing . Now they will be placing many things on her.
It says the purpose of a sleep study is to obtain various measurements during sleep(brain activity, EKG,breathing) So they use the following:
*Electrodes attached to the scalp(at the forehead, behind the ears, around the eyes and below the chin). The wires are used to record sleep activity in the brain, eye movement and muscle tone. The wires are attached using an adhesive paste and cotton.
*Electrodes attached to the chest and abdomen used to record heart rate.
*Electrodes attached to the legs(just below the knees) to record leg and body movement
*Elastic bands placed around the chest and abdomen used to monitor respiration
*Nasal Tubing, similar to oxygen tubing, is used to monitor nasal breathing
*A soft finger wrap is used to continually measure oxygen level
*Oh and it will all be video taped
So I made them promise they wouldn't laugh and tell their friends about my sleeping habits....LOL! I tend to snore when I 1st fall asleep and thats after 1-2 hours of trying to fall asleep, so maybe she gets it honestly because I toss and turn alot too!
Only one parent is aloud in the room with her in fact no other parent may come into the room at all or siblings or they will cancel the appointment on spot. They say if she fights them while they try to put all the stuff on her they will wait till she is asleep but hopefully it want be a problem, shes always done well with all her EEGs.