Photospin
My son and I spent Saturday night at a local sleep clinic. After years of him wandering from bed to bed, kicking whomever he happened to be next to, along with the added worry about enlarged tonsils, his ENT sent us there.
Wow, how times have changed.
I suffer from night terrors. Those of you not familiar with that, be grateful. It really freaks out my kids and husband.
I underwent a sleep study years ago. I still remember the setting: clinical, white tile; a glass window where the technicians could view me; and a large camera overhead.
This was nothing like that.
We walked into the warm, inviting room and were greeted with Nickelodeon on the television. The queen-size bed was plush with gold pillows, covering and splashes of jewel tones. There was nothing medical about the room except the small white box for oxygen on the night table and a small place to connect wires.
“Are we on vacation?” my son asked. Not exactly, I told him.
We had already talked about how they were going to connect him up to a bunch of wires while he watched a movie, then we would read a book and go to sleep.
He wasn’t too thrilled about the wires, but once we got there, he didn’t seem to mind at all.
We put on “Wonder Pets” and the technician got to work. We put wires two on my son’s feet, two on his chest, 10 on his head, four on his face and two straps around his belly.
He fell asleep before I finished the second book.
While the technician in the morning didn’t reveal much about what happened the night before (I didn’t know we were being risen at 6 a.m.!), he did say my son sat up several times during the night and kicked his legs 64 times.
He about fell off the bed once.
What this all means in terms of whether or not his tonsils need to be removed (the ENT’s concern was sleep apnea), I won’t find out for several weeks.
I don’t want to put him through surgery if it’s not completely needed. But I do know several moms who have said their children have slept better after the surgery.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
