As part of Natalie’s Aerodigestive clinic earlier this year, the pulmonologist recommended that we have a sleep study done for her. I honestly wasn’t sure what they were worried about (I am sure he told us, but I clearly forgot), but it seemed like an easy enough test for her. You just have to sleep! ;)
There is a sleep center at the TCH campus closest to us, but they wanted her to be at the Med Center location given her other medical issues. Not a fun drive from home with a 6pm arrival time…
We got into the room and while it is a hospital room, it is a bit cozier than the usual sterile rooms. I actually had a moment the night before when I was packing our overnight bag about how long it had been since I was packing up for a hospital visit. She’s just doing so awesome these days!
They had a giant hospital bed in the room for her and the tech decided that I could sleep with her or she could bring her a crib instead. I opted for the crib because I figured the test would be more accurate if she was alone? On the bright side, they pushed the big bed in the corner for me so I didn’t have to sleep on the couch!
It was already past her bedtime once they started the bedtime “prep”. They had to stick these electrode sensors all over her head. She didn’t seem to mind though!
The tech got them all on and then put this very stylish head wrap over them. I sent her dad a photo and he said she looked like a Teletubbie. I was so proud of how well she was handling all of the wires!
Until they put the pulse oximeter wrap on her toe. That’s when she lost it. Super weird since she lived with one on her foot or toe for months! She did eventually settle down thankfully…
Overall, it was not the best night’s sleep. It’s hard for a toddler to sleep restfully with all these wires all over the place. She honestly did better than I thought, but I was pretty exhausted!
Sensor free! They use a grease pen to mark all of the sensor spots and then use this weird sugar-based paste to get them to stick. So she clearly needed a shower when she got home. I needed a nap… Thankfully I could hand her off to Nonni and Neema so I could get a few hours of sleep before going to work.
When we got the results back, it showed she has some pretty minor sleep apnea. There’s definitely some moments where she stopped breathing, but she recovered all on her own quickly. (It sounds much scarier before the pulmonologist calmly explains what it means!) So it sounds like she will probably be having follow up sleep studies, but nothing too much to worry about at the moment.