Morgan Kate

Last night, or rather early this morning, Travis and I got home a little after three. It's been quite some time since we tiredly rolled into the driveway at that time. And this time we had an additional passenger, Morgan Kate, who happened to be wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. Her parents weren't, but she sure was.

I seriously doubt that anyone from the Sleep Lab at Palmetto Richland reads our blog. But, just in case I want to send a BIG thank you to everyone there, especially someone whom we will call "D". We may have had to come home at three in the morning, moving very slowly, but overall the sleep study went very well. D knew exactly what he was doing and how to "best prepare" an infant. It might not have been very pretty, but it worked and we got the information we needed.

We arrived just minutes before 8pm, per instructions. We were taken to a nice size room with a twin size bed, recliner, and crib. We also had our own private bathroom and TV. It was kind of like a nice hotel. Or at least that's how I was trying to see things. By 9pm we had filled out all required paperwork, Morgan Kate was hooked up to all monitors and stickies, had taken her night bottle and was fast asleep. Pretty good for an hour, huh?

Morgan Kate did really well with all her "extra equipment". I don't know if it's because she was that sleepy and the girl is adamant about her bedtime or because she is accustomed to having things attached to her when she sleeps. Either way, she acted like a pro. Travis and I did pretty good too if I must say. I only got semi-emotional once and it wasn't because of anything happening at that moment. As I was getting her ready to leave the house earlier in the night a flood of memories came back. While most of those memories are very dear to my heart, there are some I would like to forget. Like seeing my newborn baby hooked up to so many wires and gadgets or not being able to comfort her the way my heart and body so desired. But I pulled it together and put on a happy face.

MK had a pulse oximeter on each foot to monitor her heart rate and oxygen saturations. She had two stickies on her chest, as well as a sticky on her forehead and the very top of her head. There were two bands wrapped around her mid-section. She also had some sort of contraption right under her nose which drove her crazy. I actually think it was this little thing that woke her up so early and prevented her from going back to sleep. Each hand was wrapped in gauze to prevent her from pulling on any of the wires. And her head was also wrapped in guaze to prevent the movement of any of those stickies/wires.

D only had to come in twice during the night (or the six hours we were actually there) to adjust things. He came in the first time around midnight to check the pulse oximeter on MK's foot. And he came in again around 1:45ish to reinsert the white contraption in MK's nose. I am almost 100% sure that this small move caused her to wake up only fifteen minutes later. At that time I tried giving her a bottle and getting her back to sleep, but it just didn't work. She knew we were somewhere different and it was not her room or her house. At this point D returned and told us that technically they only needed three consecutive hours of sleep. He had been able to get five and a half hours so far. Therefore, if we wanted to leave we could or we could stay until 5am when the study was officially over. Hmmmm? Leave now and get MK back to sleep at home where she might actually get some good rest OR stay, get her back to sleep, and then wake her up again in two hours. The decision was quite easy. 

So, at three in the morning we left Palmetto Richland and headed home. MK stayed awake the entire drive home and I couldn't stop watching all the people that are actually out at that time. We got home, put her in her crib and ten minutes later she was out. 

Waking up this morning was "slightly" rough on Mommy and Daddy, but nothing we couldn't handle.

Oh, and the results. We don't have any results until our pediatrician gets the official report. She will then discuss the results with us. We have an appointment next week, so we may have to wait until then or she may call us prior to our appointment. Either way we don't know anything right now and we are still using the apnea monitor at night.