Sleeping Beauty

A couple of months ago Reagan went to the doctor for a sinus infection. When she opened her mouth to show the doctor her throat, our pediatrician actually stepped backwards and mentioned the size of her tonsils. She has always had large tonsils and we had discussed that before and just have been keeping an eye on it because she's never had anything more serious than a sinus infection. However, Reagan is rarely sick and therefore maybe visits the doctor one or two times a year outside of her yearly check up. So it had been several months since she had been to see our pediatrician and in those months, her tonsils had grown considerably. Enough that the pediatrician ordered a sleep study due to some snoring and history of sleep apnea in our family. 

 So last night, we got into our jammies and she and I made the trip into Children's Hospital. We had the choice to go to either Cardinal Glennon or Children's. We chose Children's because I LOVE them and that is where Corbin had his tubes surgery so if something does come out of this study we should be able to use the same ENT. Here she is on our way into the hospital.

 The hospital is completely designed for kids. It is phenomenal and I feel so fortunate that we live so close that this is an option for our family. There are trains running around the ceiling, bright colors and decorations everywhere, fun shaped wagons instead of wheelchairs and a thousand smiles on the staff for every child.

 Checking out the city lights from our window. We have been prepping her for a long time for this study. Luckily Uncle Blake recently went through similar tests and we were able to have a better understanding of what to expect and use him for help as motivation. In fact, during her transformation to a robot (more on that later!) she said, "I bet Uncle Blake looked pretty silly like this!"

 Getting all ready for bed and all settled in.

 Okay, here we go. She was hooked up more than I expected. Our nurse was beyond fantastic and within seconds had a good read on Reagan's personality. So while she was being gooped, soaped and stickered up, she was really getting a facial, make up and hair gel. I love that woman!

 Regardless of what a champ she was being, her tell tale nervous sign was there and she was rubbing the corner of her blankie. No one would've noticed except me and Luke. This picture was for him. It was so hard for him to miss this but we wanted to downplay it as much as possible. We knew if we both went, she would think it was a really big deal. So he stayed home with Corbin and I texted a play by play. Texting was our source of communication because I had this conversation:

Me: So if we need to get up to go potty what do we do??

Nurse: Everything is hooked to this box so we just unplug this box and carry it.

Me: So I just hit a call button for help?

Nurse: Oh no, we don't use call buttons here. You're on live video and audio feed so just speak normally and we'll be right in. Everything is being recorded.

Um....good to know! She had a gigantic mass of cords all tangled around her and I asked when I needed to worry about her choking because she moves so much at night, her nurse responded not to worry because they are watching the entire time, and they never take their eyes off of the kids. And they weren't kidding! At one point in the middle of the night, Reagan must've sat up, I was semi-asleep but immediately a voice came over, "Reagan, are you okay? Do need something??" She was fine, but that happened a few times which really showed me more how often she wakes up at night! Of course she doesn't normally sleep in a hospital bed attached to everything.

 She decided she was a giant plug and then being turned into a robot. Our little princess can be so dramatic and this was a big deal for her to let someone do this to her. I was so worried and just waiting for the meltdown and she looks at me and says "I-am-a-ro-bot!" in a little mechanical voice. The nurse and I just cracked up and I couldn't be prouder of her!

Time for lights out! All in all she had 8 sensors on her head, 7 on her face, two under her nose, two belts (one around her waist, one around her chest), three on her chest, two on her stomach, four on her legs and one on each big toe. Each sensor was then attached to a cord. Some of the cords connected together and some were separate but I'm still in awe of how she slept at all!

Her robot box. Good Grief!!!

Morning time! The nurse was in frequently throughout the night changing sensors or checking things and each time Reagan would look at her and talk to her. At one point she was up for quite a while around 4:00 which is kinda typical for Reagan anyhow. The nurse said in the morning that she did great and was a really big girl. Then it came time to unhook her. At this point, Reagan was finally a little whiney and said she was ready go just go home. However, all of those sensors had to come off and if I had to have that adhesive tape and stickers all pulled off of me after not sleeping fantastically, I don't think I would've been Miss Susie Sunshine either. Either way, she was great and after the plugs were taken out the nurse let her peel the stickers off herself which helped end the tears. 

All done and headed home! She was such a champ. We should find out results in a couple of weeks. Reagan doesn't really even know why she went. We just told her that we're making sure everything is working right while she sleeps. We didn't even bring up tonsils in case nothing comes of it. So we'll see what happens!