where wildly different is perfectly normal
It’s always something
It’s always something

It’s always something

A had a sleep study last night. At his last ENT appointment, the doctor suggested one, due to his huge tonsils. A study was released this spring marking the correlation between large tonsils, non-restful sleep, and ADHD-like behavior. Thank GOD he brought it up, because a year ago when I mentioned to A’s pediatrician that I didn’t think A was getting enough restful sleep, he didn’t quite believe me. He wasn’t snoring, he wasn’t snorting and waking himself up, therefore he didn’t have sleep apnea and there wasn’t a problem. Riiiight. The ENT said that A could be moving in and out of restful sleep many times a night, never waking up, but not getting enough rest, even when the clock said he was. A’s bedtime is 7 (though he falls asleep later), he gets up between 5:30-6:30, so by the clock he’s getting enough sleep. But most days, by 9 or 10 am, he has red-rimmed eyes and is tired and cranky. It only gets worse through the day. Imagine a kid who is wired through the holidays and is forcing himself to stay awake. Know how hard that is? How exhausted you are from dealing with the child, and how glad you are when he’s asleep at night and when the excitement of the holidays is finally past you? Ok, now imagine that happening every day. Every.Single.Day. For five years. Now you get the idea of what life is like around here most days, and why I joke about drinking heavily after the boys are in bed.

Last night A was all wired up, long past his bedtime. It must have been 9:30 before he was ready to actually go to sleep. And of course, what did he say? Say it with me, moms! “I have to go potty!” Gah. Unplug him, potty, plug him back in. And five minutes later, passed out. I’m so worried that this won’t be a representative sampling of his sleeping habits because he was in a different place, wired up to computers, and went to bed 2 1/2 hours past his normal bedtime. I don’t want something to be wrong with my son, but we need some answers. We’ve (ok, I’ve) been parading him from one doctor to the next, trying to get some answers about this poor kid. Is it ADHD? Is it SPD? Is it his tonsils, causing chronic mild sleep deprivation? Is he just a hyper kid and we’re the one with the problem? I don’t know. It’s 8-10 days before we gets results from last night’s sleep study. At least A got some sleep, I didn’t sleep well there and I’m a wee bit tired. Ironic, huh? Not getting good sleep at a sleep lab? ; ) Thank God for coffee!

2 Comments

  1. karen

    Oh man. That sounds like not-so-much fun. I’m glad that you’re finally getting some answers, though. Maybe taking the tonsils out will fix things. Anyway, hang in there – maybe peace (and less heavy drinking, heh) is in your future!

  2. cursingmama

    Jeeze that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. I got a crazy suggestion though…if you know of a really good, very trustworthy and honest orthodontist take him in to see if his jaw is aligning properly. I know it sounds crazy but Princess’s Ortho (I know MN is a long way to drive ;p ) totally hit the noisy/restless/open mouthed sleeper thing on the head while examining her messed up teeth. He is fixing it – he is expensive – he is worth every damn $.

Whaddya think?

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