Sleep Apnea

Anna Ruth started having sleeping issues about the same time we moved her into her new bed.  When I say sleeping issues, I mean she snores extremely loud, suddenly stops snoring (no sound what so ever) for about 30 seconds, gasps for air, and repeat.  This goes on all night long.  Also, her eyes flutter and are partly open when she sleeps as well as random sleep talking and moving (not quite sleep walking, but close). The thing that is so strange is it just seemed to happen overnight!  One night she didn't snore (or do the other strange sleeping things) and the next night she did!

I took her to her pediatrician the day after we realized it.  I recorded her so he could see.  He said it sounded/looked like Sleep Apnea. He also remarked on how large her tonsils had gotten since the last time he saw her.  I looked and they really were huge.  When she relaxes her mouth a certain way there is only a tiny, tiny space open.  I thought Sumner's were big before we had his removed, but his were small compared to hers.    So, he referred us for a sleep study and an appointment with an ENT.

We did her sleep study on March 24th.  We used a company out of Macon who does sleep studies on toddlers.  They contract out to different hospitals and send someone to the hospital to conduct the study.  The closest hospital was Ocilla.  I didn't even realize Ocilla had a hospital, much less that it was across the street from her pediatricians office.  It is a very small facility, but so nice,  Everything was so clean and nice.  The staff was also very friendly.  The lady who did the sleep study was awesome! She had a way with little ones because lets face it, having forty monitors hooked up to you from head to toe plus sleeping in a strange place can be scary to a three year old.

We got there at 8:30 PM and by 10:00 were all hooked up and ready to go. Anna Ruth was awesome! She let the technician put everything on like a champ! The only thing she got upset over was the one that went below her nostril so the technician said she would wait until she fell asleep and come back to hook it up.  Normally Anna Ruth has been in bed for 2 hours by 10:00, but due to the circumstances she didn't fall asleep as fast as we had hoped.  It was about 11:00 before she finally fell asleep.  Once she was asleep she slept like a log snoring all the way.  Matthew, Anna Ruth, "Ella", and I slept together in a small bed so you can imagine the quality of sleep we got...  The technician woke us up at 5:30 AM and we were back home by 6:30 (and of course she was wide awake and had no interest of taking a little cat nap so mama and daddy could catch up on lost sleep haha)! Sumner spent the night with YaYa and Top.

Dr. Conner called me a few days later to let me know her results which were that she did have Sleep Apnea but he felt like having her tonsils removed would put a stop to it all.

We went to the ENT the next Friday and he agreed that her tonsils needed to come out due to their size.  So, we are scheduled for that May...