OUR SLEEP OVER ADVENTURE
Winter has been quite mild so far, until last Tuesday night. Minus 24 celcius, minus 30 with the wind shield factor at 5:30 Wednesday morning.
Of course, Emma and I had to sleep at CHEO, our local children's hospital, for a sleep study on that very same night. We eyed this trip as an adventure because the pamplet provided by the hospital explained that it takes about 20-30 minutes to hook all these wires to your child before he or she falls asleep...
Sticky things on their head, sticky things on the neck, some nasal contraption to measure carbone monoxide, 2 belts around the waist, the thinkerbell light taped on the toe to measure oxygen flow, the heart monitor, etc...
This is Emma here we are talking about. Emma the dynamo. Emma who they have to put to sleep to do a heart echo, Emma on whom there is no way they can do an ECG while she is awake.
Not to worry they say, we deal with children every day. Then they meet Emma...
We got there at 7:30 pm. Emma is usually asleep back home at that time. She wants to go back in the car. No, we are sleeping here tonight... First come the belts. They are fun. Emma loves the click (on and off, on and off) just like the riding helmets at home which we play with for hours at a time. Click.
Patrick, Emma's new buddy, decides not to hook Emma on the head with a million wires. So we won't know if she dreams... So what. Patrick also decides that we will hook Emma once she sleeps, he obviously reckognized Emma's energy level.
I am surprise that she acually falls asleep with the belts around her waist... While I wait for her to be sound asleep, I watch Patrick hook this other little girl. She's a pro. It's her second sleep study. She looks like a robot. Patrick (and mom) was right, there is no way we could have done this to Emma.
We go into Emma's bedroom. Patrick is good. Emma is snoring away. He says it's nice when they sleep so soundly. He tapes the red light on her toe, I cover it with a sock. He hooks the waist belts to his machine. He sticks one sticky thing on her neck...Emma wakes up. I have to lie down with her and help her sleep again. She resists for awhile...She sleeps again. I tell Patrick I will get ready for bed then he can continue his mission. That way, if Emma wakes up again I will just slide in with her. He sticks the 2nd sticky thing on her neck. Not a problem. He installs that thing in her nose and tapes it on each side. With one quick movement, Emma has that ripped away. But she is still sleeping. Patrick does it all over again, Emma is waking up. I quickly slide in bed with her and grab her hands. It is now 10 pm. So much for reading my bood in my own little bed... We fall asleep. Or I should say, Emma falls asleep. We are both in this small hospital bed. The chrome railing is freezing my back. The blanket is not big enough for the 2 of us. Emma tosses and turns and I feel her all tangled in the wires. At one point, I am aware that the nose thing is gone. Then, went the 2 sticky things on her neck. I feel for them and stick them back on. Who knows if they're at the right place, maybe they will monitor her swallowing instead of her snoring, but hey, I am only trying to salvage some of that mission... I get up to go to the bathroom thinking it's 6 o'clock. Nobody wakes up. I go back to bed. Later, Emma wakes up. We unhook whatever is left (not much, the belts and the toe thingy). Patrick walks in and says it is 5:00 am and it's -24 celcius outside. He thinks they will have enough data. So we get dress and find ourselves in the parking lot. It is very dark, and very, very cold out there. It is now 5:40 am. Will my car start? It does but we now have to let it warm up a bit. Leaving the city, we are the sole passengers on the outbound lanes. Tons of cars are already heading to the city. I guess these people are going to work. As for us, our mission is over.
We make our 1 hour drive without incident. Get home. Guess what? Carl has locked us out!!! He is so used to be the last one in, he always double lock the doors. I run outside from our utility room. Remember it is very, very cold out there and I guess I am a little tired. I have to scream underneath his window. He played pool the night before and probably had a few beers and I'm thinking he won't hear me. So I scream louder. If the farmers around are outside, they will think Carl is trying to kill me. Or is it me trying to kill him. It is now 6:45. Wow, Carl wakes up and comes to open the door in his Adam suit!!! Thank you very much!
I feed Emma breakfast get her ready for school and write a note to her teacher that if she is too tired, phone me and I'll get her... And I go to bed. Guess what? I can not sleep. I haven't slept in daytime for so long, I guess I forgot how...
Emma comes home from school. She is fast asleep on the bus. It is a 10 minute ride from school. In her bag, the teacher wrote: Not a problem, Emma was full of energy all day, just like usual...
I don't know when we will get results from this sleep study, but I still view it as an adventure. The half test, the small bed, the temperature. No, it was not the Hilton, but we did have a sleep over!!!
Of course, Emma and I had to sleep at CHEO, our local children's hospital, for a sleep study on that very same night. We eyed this trip as an adventure because the pamplet provided by the hospital explained that it takes about 20-30 minutes to hook all these wires to your child before he or she falls asleep...
Sticky things on their head, sticky things on the neck, some nasal contraption to measure carbone monoxide, 2 belts around the waist, the thinkerbell light taped on the toe to measure oxygen flow, the heart monitor, etc...
This is Emma here we are talking about. Emma the dynamo. Emma who they have to put to sleep to do a heart echo, Emma on whom there is no way they can do an ECG while she is awake.
Not to worry they say, we deal with children every day. Then they meet Emma...
We got there at 7:30 pm. Emma is usually asleep back home at that time. She wants to go back in the car. No, we are sleeping here tonight... First come the belts. They are fun. Emma loves the click (on and off, on and off) just like the riding helmets at home which we play with for hours at a time. Click.
Patrick, Emma's new buddy, decides not to hook Emma on the head with a million wires. So we won't know if she dreams... So what. Patrick also decides that we will hook Emma once she sleeps, he obviously reckognized Emma's energy level.
I am surprise that she acually falls asleep with the belts around her waist... While I wait for her to be sound asleep, I watch Patrick hook this other little girl. She's a pro. It's her second sleep study. She looks like a robot. Patrick (and mom) was right, there is no way we could have done this to Emma.
We go into Emma's bedroom. Patrick is good. Emma is snoring away. He says it's nice when they sleep so soundly. He tapes the red light on her toe, I cover it with a sock. He hooks the waist belts to his machine. He sticks one sticky thing on her neck...Emma wakes up. I have to lie down with her and help her sleep again. She resists for awhile...She sleeps again. I tell Patrick I will get ready for bed then he can continue his mission. That way, if Emma wakes up again I will just slide in with her. He sticks the 2nd sticky thing on her neck. Not a problem. He installs that thing in her nose and tapes it on each side. With one quick movement, Emma has that ripped away. But she is still sleeping. Patrick does it all over again, Emma is waking up. I quickly slide in bed with her and grab her hands. It is now 10 pm. So much for reading my bood in my own little bed... We fall asleep. Or I should say, Emma falls asleep. We are both in this small hospital bed. The chrome railing is freezing my back. The blanket is not big enough for the 2 of us. Emma tosses and turns and I feel her all tangled in the wires. At one point, I am aware that the nose thing is gone. Then, went the 2 sticky things on her neck. I feel for them and stick them back on. Who knows if they're at the right place, maybe they will monitor her swallowing instead of her snoring, but hey, I am only trying to salvage some of that mission... I get up to go to the bathroom thinking it's 6 o'clock. Nobody wakes up. I go back to bed. Later, Emma wakes up. We unhook whatever is left (not much, the belts and the toe thingy). Patrick walks in and says it is 5:00 am and it's -24 celcius outside. He thinks they will have enough data. So we get dress and find ourselves in the parking lot. It is very dark, and very, very cold out there. It is now 5:40 am. Will my car start? It does but we now have to let it warm up a bit. Leaving the city, we are the sole passengers on the outbound lanes. Tons of cars are already heading to the city. I guess these people are going to work. As for us, our mission is over.
We make our 1 hour drive without incident. Get home. Guess what? Carl has locked us out!!! He is so used to be the last one in, he always double lock the doors. I run outside from our utility room. Remember it is very, very cold out there and I guess I am a little tired. I have to scream underneath his window. He played pool the night before and probably had a few beers and I'm thinking he won't hear me. So I scream louder. If the farmers around are outside, they will think Carl is trying to kill me. Or is it me trying to kill him. It is now 6:45. Wow, Carl wakes up and comes to open the door in his Adam suit!!! Thank you very much!
I feed Emma breakfast get her ready for school and write a note to her teacher that if she is too tired, phone me and I'll get her... And I go to bed. Guess what? I can not sleep. I haven't slept in daytime for so long, I guess I forgot how...
Emma comes home from school. She is fast asleep on the bus. It is a 10 minute ride from school. In her bag, the teacher wrote: Not a problem, Emma was full of energy all day, just like usual...
I don't know when we will get results from this sleep study, but I still view it as an adventure. The half test, the small bed, the temperature. No, it was not the Hilton, but we did have a sleep over!!!
posted by Camille at 8:24 PM
3 Comments:
haha!!! I can just see Emma at that sleep study!!
I love that line, "we deal with kids all the time -- she'll be fine." Yeah, right!!!
They might get away with those little distraction tricks on kids that haven't had a bazillion tests done on them, but not our girls!
Honestly, its the reason we've not done a sleep study -- I don't think I want to know, because I'd never be able to keep a CPAP machine on Paige ever!
And boy I can relate to the "good night's sleep" you got...God only knows how many CHEO attendants have seen my butt hanging out of the side of the bed with no blankets on it!!!!
I loved reading this post - and chuckled heartily at your discomfort and Patrick's challenge! It is so good that you have your computer back - if you make it down under I'll race Hannah for that hug! Glad that Ms Amy's lovelife has settled temporarily too - who'd want the angst of that love again!
Hee hee - yes - I think "sleep study" is an oxy-moron.... Brady did marginally better than Emma, but his results were terrible, maybe you really don't want to know ;) WE're headed for a T and A, but knowing us, that won't work, and CPAP it will be - and there is no way that is going to work for us!
Hope you get good results, so you don't have to go for another sleep over ;)
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