Toddler Sleep Study

So I guess it's been a long time since I have blogged about my family.  I've been doing some soul searching recently and realized how much I missed my blog.  Not because I truly enjoy writing or think anyone really enjoys reading, but it really is a great way to document and be able to look back on our kids little lives, which are flying by way too quickly.  Hopefully later this week I will be able to do a quick update post on the family again, but for now I just wanted to document my experience with having a sleep study done with my toddler.

Kayla (almost 4.5 years old! what?!?) had tubes put in her ears for consistent fluid and ear infections about 18 months ago.  It has been great since then.  We went for a 6 month follow up with the ENT doc last June and were supposed to go back in December for another follow up 1 year post, however I was putting it off because I didn't know how much it was needed and I wasn't the biggest fan of the ENT we had seen.  Recently, it seems that her snoring has gotten worse, teachers at day care have mentioned things to me, and she and I had a sleep over in her bed one night because she had been so great at bedtime for an extended period without me begging.  This "sleep over" turned into her sleeping and me up all night, literally, just making sure she was breathing.  Her snoring is like an old, large truck driver - huge, extensive noises coming from a very petite little girl.  I couldn't sleep due to the snoring and then between snores, I found myself staring at her chest almost willing it to move.  I was pretty convinced she wasn't breathing in these 6-10 second breaks between snores.  Bolstered by the fact at the end of the pauses she was taking large gasping breaths, I decided to set up another follow up appointment with a different ENT to check the status of her tubes and talk about her snoring.

The new ENT was super nice, Kayla was extremely well behaved.  One ear tube is still perfectly in place, one has pretty much fallen out but there is no sign of infection in the ear.  The ENT said her tonsils were very "significant" and said we had two options: 1. just have her tonsils and adenoids taken out or 2. have a sleep study done to find out exactly what is going on.  I opted for the sleep study since she has been snoring for pretty much her whole life and I had only experienced this fear of her not breathing the one night I slept with her.  So we scheduled a sleep study for the next week.

Oh yeah, we are expecting Baby Hales #3 incase you weren't aware already!

We arrived at 8:30 for the sleep study.  Kayla was pretty anxious and nervous, clung to my side, but overall did great.  We filled out some paperwork, get settled into our small room and watched the end of the Blackhawks Stanley Cup playoff game.  The tech then came in to put the "stickers" or monitors on Kayla.  These monitors involved 14 stickers on her head, 1 on her neck, 2 on her chest, 4 on her legs and a finger (pulse oximeter).  She was actually quite good during the placement of all these stickers, and actually was extremely fascinated by the red light on her pointer finger.  When I turned the lights off, she even was shaking her finger around to see the little red light in the mirror on the back of the door. This whole thing was pretty painless, but pretty jarring to see as a parent.  She looked like she was getting out of brain surgery, but all it was was little electrodes on her head.

No so sure about this. 

Warming up to the process

What is that thing?

Eventually, probably around 9:30-10:00 we went to sleep.  Well, she went to sleep and I lie awake for pretty much the whole night.  At first, I was worried she would have a great night where she failed to snore and was breathing normally. Then the snoring began, I was already emotional about her looking like she did and my nerves were on high trying to figure out if my little girl would have to have some surgery or something worse.  The snoring seemed worse than normal and the lack of breathing seemed worse than before as well.  I have never wanted to get out of a place and go home as much as I did this night.  Kayla slept great, we even had to change her nasal cannula in the middle of the night and she barely stirred.  At 6:15 am, the tech woke us up and came into our room to remove all the stickers from Kayla.  This was the worst part.  Kayla cried a bunch because I'm sure it felt terrible removing all the tape, etc.  Her sensitive skin turned red almost immediately but I was so glad to be headed home.  The tech said to me, "You didn't sleep much did you?"  I said, "No, I'm already anxious and it's impossible to sleep when you are laying next to your daughter who you KNOW isn't breathing properly."  She said that she couldn't say anything but "we got what we needed."

Showing off her little red light finger

We stopped for breakfast and donuts on the way home and were home by 7:30 probably.  We took it VERY easy all morning and watching movies huddled together in the basement.  Then the waiting to here from the doctor began.  

I did hear from the doctor last Thursday (5 days after the sleep study), which wasn't so bad, except it was in the morning while I was waiting to begin my last weekend intensive of prenatal yoga teacher training (more on that in a later post). She has SEVERE obstructive sleep apnea and the ENT suggested a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, so we are in the process of trying to schedule the surgery ASAP, as I can barely check on her at night without crying due to the fact she isn't breathing properly.  I know it's a pretty routine, quick surgery, but my little toddler is still having SURGERY.  I'm nervous and anxious and I just want it to be over so we can be past this.  I want her to feel better and sleep better.  I will keep you updated! 

MD Update

We had Kayla's 4 month doctor's check up today.  Let's just say, I understand why people always brag about their children now.  I'm so proud of how far she has come, and really, how far we have come as a family.

The nurse always does all the measurements first so without further ado, here they are:

Length: 25 inches (about the 70th percentile)
Weight: 13 pounds 5 ounces (about the 30th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16 1/4 inches (above the 50th percentile, I think she said around the 70th?)

Basically, she is taking after her dad in the head size area.  The nurse said she just has lots of brains, Justin said that's from me.  :)

When the nurse practitioner (if you recall, her name is Theresa) came in we talked a lot about feeding and sleep.  Basically, she said it was fine if we wanted to give her some rice cereal.  We should start with once a day and the go to two if she seems to like it.  We also need to try more cereal with less milk and try to feed it to her on a spoon.  So we will probably start trying that.  Also, she said we could maybe start some fruits/veggies around 5 or 5.5 months (squash or something else that I can't remember were her suggestions.)

As for sleeping, this is one point of serious pride for me and Justin.  We've worked really hard the past week and a half on promoting her independence and falling asleep on her own and our efforts are really paying off.  Our only question was if we should still be waking up at night to feed her.  She said some babies do still need to wake up but we should try a "dream feed" when I go to bed around 9 or 10 and hopefully she would sleep until 6 am without waking.  So this is step number 2 (after the rice cereal).

Once again, Theresa said that Kayla looks great, was so impressed with her strength and Kayla even showed off her rolling skills, while no of us were paying attention.  Don't worry, nothing happened.  I tried to have a talk with her before the appointment saying she wasn't allowed to do that, but when has she listened to me before??  Theresa also said that she wouldn't be surprised at all if Kayla was sitting up on her own at or before her 6 month visit based on what she is doing now.  Wait a minute, can we just take this one day at a time...the days go by too fast as my little girls keeps growing!

The only thing that came up was that it seems that Kayla and I have a little bit of thrush.  It might explain my increased soreness and Kayla's fussiness the past couple days so hopefully the medications will help with that.  I couldn't really expect to go for four months without one little issue with her could I?

Basically, she's the best baby ever.  Theresa didn't say that in so many words, but that's how I interpreted it!

Thanks to my new friend, Lauren, for showing me what I can do with editing!!

One Week Countdown...

Yesterday, we had our hospital tour.  It was nice for me to actually see where we would be and learn about the process because I've been a little worried that they say once you get to the hospital, the anxiety you feel can slow down your labor.  I mean, it's not that I'm scared of hospitals at all, I'm in the health care field.  It's just that I've never been the patient, and I'm leaving with a child...so that's a little bit anxiety inducing, but exciting!

Today, we had our 39 week midwife appointment.  Good news: almost 2 cm dilated and the midwife said, "Come on baby, where are you.  He/she is so low, what are they waiting for?"  Good question Danielle, I'm wondering the SAME EXACT thing.  Bad news:  my blood pressure has been a little high my last two visits at the beginning of the visit and then back down to closer to normal afterwards.  Danielle suggested we get some PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) blood work done and then come back in on Thursday or Friday for another BP check to see how it is.  I think part of it is my nervousness and anxiety causing the heightened blood pressure, but I'm with her.  Better safe than sorry.  Justin asked when they would start talking induction.  She said usually they wouldn't recommend it at all for first time mom's before at least 41 weeks.  I'm really hoping I don't have to be induced and my blood work and BP at the end of this week are back to normal.  I need some hints/tricks to make Baby Hales hurry up and make his/her debut!!  I've been eating chili and having some wine.  I'm taking the cervix softener/fatty acid pills they told me to take.  The Baby is clearly ready, almost -2 station (lower than last week) and 2 cm dilated.  I'm nervous but definitely ready.  Come on, what is taking so long!  I feel like I'm going to be pregnant forever.

Any "tricks" to hurry this along would be really appreciated.  On that note, here is finally a new belly photo and I'm off to drink some wine.  Maybe a glass a night will help things along??

Full Term!!!

Woohoo!  The milestones of pregnancy are so much more exciting in the last month!  Today we are considered full term...so if Baby Hales decides to make his or her debut any day now, the doctors/midwives would just let it happen.

Today we had our appointment with a new midwife who does deliveries, Patricia.  She was really funny and nice and I secretly hope she will be at the hospital with me.  My weight and blood pressure were normal today (thankfully for those of you that know what happened to me last week :) ).  Cervical checks weekly are optional so I thought, why not see how things are going at this point.  Tricia asked if I had been having any contractions...I'm still not sure about this as it feels more like cramping to me.  I was measuring small again today - 35 cm, but within normal limits.

She poked around my belly to try to determine the exact position of the baby (I am REALLY ticklish.)  She was poking quite a bit more than normal and then gave this perplexed face and goes, "Well, I'm sure your baby has a head, I just can't find it!"  "It must be way down in there."  So I guess the baby isn't JUST head down, he/she is WAY down - which might explain the 3-4 weeks of significant pubic bone pressure I've been experiencing.  The only thing that worried me a little during the appointment was she had a hard time hearing the heartbeat, then asked me if it was normally low.  I told her no one has really told me a number, they just keep telling me it's perfect!  But she said it's normally between 110 and 160 and our baby's was 115 and it went up to 130 when she poked at him/her (which I warned her baby does not like.) I'll try to keep the details to a minimum regarding the cervical check, but basically I'm very slightly dilated and 50% effaced and the baby's head isn't quite lining up right yet.  I'm so excited.  I'm not sure that this necessarily signifies any expected D-day for the little one, but it's a little more exciting to know a little bit more.  She is the first midwife to tell me to actually do a kick count.  I've been sorta keeping track but maybe I'll try to be more concrete about it now - starting tonight.

Oh, also, Tricia is an Ohio State fan and said they she sometimes brings OSU booties for her moms that are fans and for the Michigan fans, just to piss them off! :)  I told her about our family tradition of Hang on Sloopy at weddings.  I think she likes me!

Here are a few of my favorite maternity photos from our shoot with Rachel Naft!



P.S. I've decided I'd rather be dealing with a crying baby than all my whiney patients, so please come quickly Baby.

34 week Doctor Appt.

It's actually 34 weeks and 3 days... but who's counting?  At our baby/birthing class this week, the nurse instructor was running through a list of names of the midwives from our practice that actually do deliveries at the hospital.  Funny, we/I haven't seen ANY of those midwives!  The practice encourages you to see everyone since you never know who will be there when you deliver, which I totally get, but seriously?  I think we can be pretty sure we won't be seeing any of the midwives that don't even do deliveries at the hospital!

So today, we saw yet another midwife, but this one actually does "a lot of deliveries."  She was very nice just like everyone else at our practice.  The nurse I think may have been new as well because I walked into the bathroom and stepped onto the scale without her even saying anything.  Then she said, "You know the drill, huh? Weight, pee..."  I laughed and said, "Yeah, 34 weeks later!"  :)  We then went into the room and finished the rest of the typical nurse-related activities.  This nurse seemed younger and more thorough than most of the other ones though.  She asked if we had any questions/needed anything and informed me that the next visit I would be getting a Strep B test.

Then the midwife came in, and also joked with us a bit.  She got out the doppler and checked the heartbeat.  Then she poked and prodded my belly to get the baby to move and then checked the heartbeat again.  She said it was supposed to go up after the baby moves, which it did, and like those before her said it was "perfect."  Then she measured my belly.  She said it was 32 cm, which is a pretty normal for 34 weeks.  I said no one ever told me what the measurement was and I was curious because I feel like I'm smaller than other women as far along as me.  She said that was because I was tall and long waisted (which I figured), and then said probably in the next few weeks, I would still measure small and the practitioner would probably recommend an ultrasound to check the growth of the baby and the US would say the baby was in the 90th percentile.  She sounded like this happened a lot! :)

Anyways, all in all yet another uneventful appointment - except that I got to meet one of the midwives who may be with me in the delivery room!  I also made all of our remaining appointments and I realized next week is my last week without an appointment with a doctor before I deliver...scary.  New belly photos for Justin's co-workers (and anyone else who has been wondering what's taking so long!)

Partner yoga post coming up! :)

32 week check-up

Justin and I went to the usual OB office visit today: check-in, check weight, pee in a cup, get blood pressure, wait for doctor or midwife, measure belly, listen to heartbeat, ask questions...every time...  Justin hasn't been to the OB with me in quite some time and after the appointment he says, "So is that pretty standard for your visits?"  Haha, um yeah pretty much exactly every time.

Great things from this visit:

• I haven't gained that much weight since my last visit (which I think it awesome, especially because they aren't saying there is anything wrong with the growth of the baby or anything like that)


• The doctor we saw today was very nice, just like everyone at this office (Justin is taking credit for finding us a great OB-GYN office)


• She eased some labor fears by repeating multiple times how "nice and tall" we are and how she thinks I will do "just fine"


• She also eased my fears about the baby being breach because of my poorly positioned sacrum.  She told me not to worry about anything until 36 weeks- so we have another month.


• She (along with pretty much every other person we've seen) mentioned that the baby's heartbeat is 130-140 bpm - "Perfect"

I can't believe we only have 8 weeks left.  If you haven't put your vote in on the pool, see my previous post, or the link on the right side of the page!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  I hope everyone spends some time letting the important people in their lives know how thankful they are to have them!

Prenatal Yoga

So, I have tried yoga ONCE in my whole life.  I HATED it.  I have always been very athletic and yoga was SO boring to me.  I hardly felt like it was a workout at all.  BUT...I figured prenatal yoga could be really good, especially when I'm huge and can barely move at all! :)

Well, there is a yoga studio literally about a block from our apartment that a friend of Justin's, Sean, goes to.  He is friends with the owner and instructor, Padma.  Justin and I have been to the DC Improv with Sean and Padma (who's name is Sarah.)  I decided to ask both Sean and Sarah what they thought because I was a little nervous to start for 2 reasons: 1. I don't do yoga so I don't really know what I'm doing and 2. I'm not really THAT pregnant yet.  But Sarah said it's her favorite class to teach and she really makes you sweat in the prenatal class and all of her classes.  So I went last night, with an open mind and heart.  And it was AWESOME!  I liked Sarah a lot before but she even made me like yoga!  Plus is was so awesome to be in a small intimate group of ladies who are going through the same thing as you.  Plus, the class was hard!  I'm a little sore today.  But I'm so excited to grow with all these women and learn from Padma!

Today, I had a doctor's appointment (this time with the actual doctor, not one of the midwives.)  I was without my better half, and I had tried to prepare some good questions since I've felt silly since I didn't have any at the last two appointments.  The doctor said I could keep playing volleyball just to be careful about diving (duh, I'm already doing that) and I can have SUSHI in moderation!  He is my savior for telling me that.  He also listened to the heartbeat again, said it was strong and perfect!  Then told me I was "an easy appointment," which is a good thing!  Yay for a health happy baby...which Gloria, the lady who gives a great scalp massage while washing your hair at the salon, thinks is a girl since I haven't felt any kicking yet.  She's so cute, so I believe her!

Here's a photo of my new haircut taken on the front facing camera of my new iPhone 4!  Nina misses you Mom and Dad!