Sleep Study Survivor

Tali's hospital bracelet. I did not take a picture of her with all the wires.

Last night, Tali had to do a sleep study. There's a possibility that she has sleep apnea so the doctor wanted her to be observed for a night to find out. I started preparing her for this the day before by telling her that she was going to sleep in a special place with just Mommy and they were going to put stickers all over her body. She got excited and was looking forward to it.

When we got to the hospital (or "special place"), she was great. She greeted everyone and was very sweet. Everything was going well until her nurse, Grace, began putting on the "stickers." The stickers are actually small dots with wires attached to them. They were mostly placed on her head, though a few were on her legs. H and I did our best to encourage her and distract her. Tali was good for a while, but then it got to be too much and she got upset. She began crying and saying "I don't want to be like this." We eventually calmed her and got her into bed (with me!).

Once in bed, she started crying again. And then the real fun began. In addition to all the wires, she needed to have a breathing tube placed into her nostrils so that they could determine her breathing patterns. This did not go over well and took a long time to do. She finally agreed to it, I held her hands, and we turned on the TV in her room as a special treat. H went home and Tali and I began our night by watching the Mets game on TV about 30 minutes after her regular bed time. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep, but she stayed up to watch the game. Around 10:00 p.m., she started talking to me and woke me up. I turned off the TV and she fell asleep quickly.

Throughout the night Grace would come into the room to reattach stickers that had fallen off. This rarely woke Tali, but it woke me. Only on one instance, when Tali took the tube out in her sleep, did Grace wake her. We had a few minutes of screaming before she agreed to put the tube back in. After Grace left the room that time, Tali turned to me and asked if Grace could help her get dressed in the morning. I said yes and she went back to sleep.

In the morning, we were woken up 1 1/2 hours earlier than Tali's normal wake time as that is when the center begins to close for the day. As Grace was taking off the stickers, Tali said "I'm Tali again." Grace helped her get dressed and as we were ready to leave, Tali told me that she wants to come back one day and do it again - stickers, tube, and all!

After Grace helped her get dressed. (Sorry for the terrible lighting - a bulb was out in the room.)

Now we have to wait two weeks for the doctor to interpret the results. I hate waiting for things like this.