Sleep Study Update

Because I know there is family waiting for an update on Paiton's sleep study, here is what I know so far:

I got a call yesterday from the sleep doctor. She said that she had spent a few hours going over Paiton's sleep study and she wanted to talk about it with me. We talked about what had gone on that night with Paiton not sleeping much and having trouble keeping her binky in, etc.

She said that the data they did get showed this: Paiton stops breathing throughout the night. About 9 times an hour her oxygen levels drop significantly. This triggers her brain to wake her up and take a breath. The doctor was shocked at that number and that Paiton REALLY is waking up that many times a night, like we told her. Anything more than that happening once an hour is considered abnormal, so 9 times an hour is severely abnormal. (By this time on the phone this pregnant mom was crying!)

She went on to say that in a perfect world we'd do like 3-4 nights in a row of sleep studies, but obviously that isn't an option. She said that she could hear Paiton making little noises when she sleeps around the time that her oxygen drops. I guess we've never noticed it or just are used to her doing that.

The doctor was really nice and was trying to comfort me, but basically we won't know any more until we go in to our appointment on the 18th. She is going to call Paiton's regular doctor and talk to her about what to do. It's looking like it's something called Central Sleep Apnea. The seizure testing didn't show any seizure activity, which is good, but they may want to go one step further to rule those out by doing an MRI on her brain - that will both rule out seizures but also show if there is anything else wrong in her brain causing her to have this problem.

If not, the only other thing she brought up was having surgery to remove P's tonsils and adenoids. She said Paiton is really young for this still, but they may have to do it to help her breathe at night. I asked her if we needed to be staying up with P all night to make sure she is breathing, she said of course not, but that any time we're up or awake during the night we do need to be checking on her. She has been in bed with Matt and I for the last couple months, since it got hard for me to get in and out of bed dozens of times a night to comfort her, and the sleep doctor said that's totally fine, she needs to be where she can sleep and where we can keep an eye on her. So for now that's where she'll stay until we get some more information.

The doctor knows I'm having a baby on the 4th, so she is doing what she can to speed things up - whether that means going to see an ENT about her tonsils, getting an MRI done, etc., we will probably have a busy couple weeks between her appt on the 18th and Quinn coming on the 4th. Definitely not what I wanted to hear and not what I had hoped for P.

I was pretty emotional about it yesterday, and still am today, who wants to hear that their kid's oxygen levels drop so low that their brain has to tell them breathe!?

Matt and my dad both were less than thrilled that the doctor upset me, but she was just telling me what they found and what I needed to know, she can't keep the results from me, so although it worries me and I don't like it, now I know that we have a ways to go before this is resolved and I will be keeping a closer eye on her (if you know me, you know that it isn't really possible to keep an even closer eye on her!!)

So that is my update. We will know more on the 18th.

Yesterday was not Paiton's best day! She has had a fever on and off for a couple days and I thought her top 2 year molars were coming in since the bottom ones are in already. But yesterday afternoon out of nowhere she developed a bad cough - a croup cough! Dang it! Croup is the same virus as laryngitis, so it constricts their airways and makes their cough sound like a seal barking. She also has a very raspy voice that now is almost gone, you can barely hear her squeak-talking! Poor girl can't catch a break! I called the doctor's office this morning hoping they would call in the steroid for Croup, but they (of course) want to see her, so we're headed in to be checked out in a bit.

To cheer you up, here are a couple funny Paiton stories:

-The other night we had just gone to bed and Paiton was sitting up between Matt and I. I think she had just gotten a drink or something, and she told us "I'm going to lay down now. Do you have any questions for me?" Matt and I about died laughing!! She is so funny!

- She has started saying "I've got a person, in my closet!" which is a line from Tangled, but we do get funny looks from people in the story when she says that! ;)

- The other day she told me "Today is my 18th birthday!" I said "Um, what!?" to which she responded "Today is my 18th birthday, just like Rapunzel!" In case you haven't seen Tangled 45,677 times like we have, part of it takes place on Rapunzel's 18th birthday :)