Braska: Good sleep

Now that I’m feeling all better after my surgee, I’m back to sleeping really good.  I even sleep on my back sometimes now. And I’ve never done that before.


See my cool shirt?  Miss Julie got it for me from Miss Amy.

Mommy report: Wired and ready to sleep

I’m home, after dropping Braska and M off at Children’s.  We got her all set up and wired up, and she did SO well.  I didn’t think she’d tolerate all the sticky things and leads, but she didn’t flinch.  Well, until they wanted to use one that would hook around her lip.  Nope, that was not going to happen.  Thankfully, her super nice tech Donna had another cannula without that hook, so all was ok.

Here’s a pictorial version of the process.


The little TV with Sprout on it was the saving grace.  She stayed focused on that and didn’t mind the rest of the action happening to her. 


She was happy that Daddy was in p-jammies too and was ready to snuggle.


The final look, cannula and all.


A hug from Mommy before I left for the night.  She was plenty tired.


Last minute adjustments.  She had leads on her legs, chest, face, and head.


Ready to sleep, Daddy close to make sure she went down ok.


Quite a bunch of wires for such a small girl.


And finally, here’s a little clip with one sleepy girl’s “good night.” 

Braska: Sleepover at the hospital

Tonight I get to sleep at the hospital even though I’m not real sick or anything.  They’re going to watch me sleep and see if they can figure out how to help me feel better and sleep better and breathe better.  Daddy’s going to stay with me all night, too, because Mommy isn’t very good at sleeping at the hospital.  KiKi is staying with Auntie Rachel and Uncle Patrick so Mommy can take us down tonight and pick us up really early tomorrow morning. 

See you tomorrow!

Love,
Braska

Mommy report: ENT visit

What’s new, you ask??

You might have seen on the Twitter gadget on my blog that we had several things to talk to the ENT about yesterday when Braska saw him.  I took my handy dandy fancy clipboard with my questions ready. 

We addressed her sleep issues, waking frequently, and apneic episodes that have been getting worse lately. 

We’re now waiting for the sleep center to call and schedule her appointment. Depending on what is found, she may be having tonsils and adenoids removed.

We addressed her hearing issues, the fact that she’s been getting lazy with her speech, and seems to show that she’s not hearing as well as she has in the past. 

After the oh-so-fun microscopic exam of her ears, she has fluid again, 4th time in 3 months, and we’ll be scheduling surgery to insert tubes after the results of the sleep study are in.  If we need to do the tonsillectomy, we’ll combine the procedure with her tube placement to avoid anesthesia twice.  Most likely her hearing issues are related to the fluid distorting what used to be clear to her.

We addressed her incessant teeth-grinding, letting him know that it happens when she has ear issues, and it lessens or stops when her ears are clear.

After the typical “kids just grind their teeth,” he did agree that it will likely help to have the fluid situation taken care of via the tube placement.

So that’s where we stand.  We’ll hopefully get the sleep study scheduled in the next few weeks, then after those results are in, we’ll set up the tubes procedure and whatever additional things need to be done at the same time under anesthesia… possibly even dental work that is soon due.

There. You’re up to date. Thanks for asking!

Simple sleeping pleasures

Rested... for now

We've had a rough couple nights. Braska's birthday party went well. I'll get to that later, but soon I hope. But last night, Braska went to bed at 8pm (quite early, and without full feeds for the day) and I hit the pillow at about 8:45pm. M came in then too, because none of us have had good regular sleep for a bit. He was out in 2 seconds. I laid there til about 10 before falling asleep, but still. I expected Braska to wake up super early since it was an early to bed, but she slept til just after 7:15am and I slept till right around then. Not a bad deal. I'm up with visions of grandeur for things to accomplish today... we'll see.

Tomorrow is a crazy busy day, 7 appointments at Children's DS Center and various specialists, from 8:45am til about 4pm. Thank goodness for my mother-in-law coming along to help occupy and be extra hands through the day!

Off to a great start

Braska was up at 3am in the oh-so-frustrating way she does on rare occasions, sitting up and crying in her crib. After a few tries of rocking til she was asleep and then putting her back in bed, only for her to pop up right away saying "up! up!", she went back to bed with me. As I've mentioned before, I'm not at ALL a fan of kids sleeping in the parents' bed. But when the two options are for me to sit and rock her while she sleeps or to lie down and at least rest while she sleeps, I go for the horizontal position.

She wasn't snoring, so that was an improvement over the congestion issues of a few weeks ago, but I still can't sleep at all when she's right there. I hear every sound, feel every quiver or kick, and it means no sleep for as long as she's there. I managed to get comfortable for a while, but it was short lived as I was on about 10 inches at the edge of our lovely king-sized bed. In my state of aches and pains, with Pepino constantly telling me that she is not happy with my position, this was not a most pleasant few hours, to say the least. But we made it until about 7:20am when M got up for work. Of course, Miss Slept Well While Mommy Didn't was happy, giggling, and ready to play, while I was a tad on the grouchy side.

We got up about 7:45am when her pleas to "get up" were finally heeded, and we started the day. Now it's 9:30 am, and I've changed her twice for massive puking episodes (we call them full-feed, because it's soon after her feeding and it sure looks like the whole 6 oz.), once for excessive diaper mess, and changed me once for her wetting on me while I was trying to whisk her to the tub. There are 6 wet spots on the carpet from puke/spit-up and the carpet cleaner that was added to try to help. We have two therapies scheduled today, ST this morning, and PT this afternoon. Napping is tricky on Thursdays with that schedule, so I've cancelled them for today due to her iffy situation and my lack of sleep and impatience with generally everything.

I'm sure it's just a fluke. She's not really acting sick. I think she might be working on another tooth or two. Whatever it is, it's not the way I like to start a day.

To end on a good note....it's so nice and cool outside, that's nice.

Darn, she just melted into a crying puddle again. For a girl who doesn't cry more than a couple times a month, normally, this is disturbing..... Happy Thursday.

Liquid baby

If Braska continues with the eye watering and nose running and rattling wet cough, she's gonna just soak into the floor and disappear I think. That girl's gooey. Now, granted, she doesn't drool, even now, and that's good. Drool gets to me for some reason.

The good news is that she slept better last night thanks to our pals ibuprofen and benadryl. All night. We all slept all night. How spoiled we've been!! Let's hope it continues, though.

We saw her new pediatrician yesterday for a quick meeting. I like her, and I think she'll be willing to do whatever we need for Braska, so that's what's important. We actually go in tomorrow for a before-the-weekend check on Braska's cough, but we'll see her associate since she's out.

BTW... Stay tuned for the return of Random Questions next week... are you ready?

A few winks

Last night Braska had some trouble initially, but M was nice enough to take her so that I could go to sleep, and he returned to bed sometime a little later after she was snoozing in her bed. She slept from about 11 to 4:30am, which normally would be a bad night for her, but after the last few, that's pretty good. I brought her in to our bed at 4:30am hoping she would snuggle up and go back to sleep, even if I couldn't. She was so restless, but she slept for bits here and there. She just thrashes around with her eyes closed like she just can't get comfortable. For her, that's especially weird, because when it's time for bed, she's like a stone. She zonks out in the position she lands in and doesn't move much at all.

She has had two short naps this morning, one that I got to snooze during as well. The other was on my lap, so I just managed to get some work-work done with one hand since the laptop was next to me on the couch, so as not to disturb her. We're headed to have a consult with a possible new pediatrician today (thanks Julie!) in about 45 mins to meet her and discuss Braska's history and see if we feel comfortable with the match. The really good part is that her office is less than 1/4 mile from our apartment, super handy, so that would be a nice switch, for sure.

Thanks for all the tips on things to try with Braska for some comfort. I have had her on Tylenol regularly, but no Benadryl. Don't know why I didn't think of it. Oh wait, she's not been sick in 18 months...that might be why! We're getting some today, though.

OH! And the other news... she has 5...count them...5 teeth coming in right now!!! That could be the problem. I only knew of 2 til I did some forceful checking this morning. Ouch!