Sleep Study.

 So before we left for Japan, one of the big things on the list,

 was to get a sleep study done for Ronan. 

It. was. not. fun.

(to put it very, very mildly)

I can honestly say that aside from labor to bring my children into this world, 

this was probably the other hardest thing I have ever done. 

It was TERRIBLE- physically, and emotionally. 

So why do it, you ask?

Well, to spare you the exhausting details; Ronan has always been a horrible sleeper from the day we brought him home from the hospital. And by that, I mean really, really bad- 20 minutes at a time for the first year max. Now to this day, he has improved some with a few good months here and there; but six years later I would honestly say my body feels like I am on constant alert. I go to bed just waiting for him to wake up. Considering the other things we have now going on with him, the doctors really wanted us to get a sleep study done to get a good overall picture of anything in his sleep patterns that could be influencing his daytime behaviors. 

So despite my nervous urges to cancel the appointment on numerous occasions, we decided we better at least try to get it done. Knowing what we did about how the experience would be, 

we were not very optimistic that it would even work! 

It was going to be a HUGE challenge to get everything set up and monitoring correctly.

 In anycase, we packed up our overnight bag and Ronan and I headed up to Johns Hopkins. 

As you can see above, there were cords, tubes and wires all over him.  Legs, arms, chest, face, nose, head, finger and toes!  And the best part? All of this had to be put on him while he was awake! Even the nose thing! aack!

Here's how it went down. I sat behind him in the hospital bed and held him while he screamed, and screamed and screamed! It was awful! Of course nothing actually hurt, but he was petrified and super uncomfortable! The nurse put all of the leads on his legs, arms, chest, etc and then his head, with super thick yucky glue stuff. Then eventually she wrapped it all up tight so that it would stay on in the correct spots. It took multiple hours and he finally fell asleep at 11:00pm. 

She said that about half of the time the child/and or parents really can't handle it and they have to quit.

After all the effort we had put in, there was no way I was going to let it be for nothing! 

We stuck it out, and got him to fall asleep!!

Now I had come prepared with new
 PJs, new videos, games, fruit snacks, and juice-

but you know what the only thing that helped him calm down was?

As a last resort- our awesome nurse pulled out a glove and made a balloon! He LOVED it. Only he needed like four more! 

She totally saved the day! 

We took these pictures with him and his 

special balloons the next morning, 

after he got to take all of the wires off. 

It was 6 am, so he was still a bit sleepy.

 I had to get a picture with our amazing nurse! She is honestly the only reason we were able to complete the sleep study! She was SOOO wonderful with Ronan, even when he screamed at her for hours!! The best part too, as we chatted I found out that she had just spent the last 5 years in Madagascar in the Peace Corps! So Awesome! As some of you may know, we have a big connection to Madagascar in our family, so it must have been meant to be! We chatted all about Mada through the evening and compared stories from when I was able to visit Madagascar in 2003 with Noah. 

She was truly an angel sent from Heaven,
and an answer to prayer, I have no doubt!

We did the test shortly before we moved here to Japan,  so we are still in the process of understanding/ and utilizing the results; but all I can say is that I am glad it is over! I do not ever plan to do that again!!! 

See you later sleep study!
 Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

(but seriously, thank you for wonderful technology that can help us help our little guy)