Why I'm Typing a Post at 3:00 am

Marissa and I are at her sleep study and she is sleeping but I am not. I fell asleep about 12:30 and woke up at about 3:00 because the tech came in to put her nasal cannula back in. It woke her up and she was scared and crying, so I had to stand by her crib and comfort her back to sleep.

Therein lies the problem.

The crib only has two levels for the railing to be at. Really low and really high. Marissa is normally good about not falling out of bed, but if she is disoriented and scared, like tonight, she might not be so good. So the rail needs to be up higher. She is much more sensitive here than at home, in a scary place, with probes all over her and a nasal cannula. Understandable. When she needs to be comforted, she likes my hand on her chest or side. I am not tall enough to reach her over the rail when it is in it's high position. I can't reach her through the bars. When the metal crib rail is slid up and down, it makes squeaking and locking sounds. Which wakes her up. Which requires me to get up and comfort her back to sleep. But I am not tall enough to reach her over the rail and I can't reach her through the bars. So I have to lower the rail, comfort her back to sleep, and put the rail back up. Which makes squeaking and locking sounds. Which wakes her up. Which requires me to get up and comfort her back to sleep. But I am not tall enough....

I think you get the point.

So I had the bright idea to pull a chair up beside her crib, stand on it, and comfort her over the rail. This way, there is no sound of the rail sliding and locking into place because I don't have to lower it. Brilliant!

Except...

The tech saw me through the night camera and came in and told me it was a liability for me to be standing on a chair. Which I completely, 100% understand. In fact, I knew it was not going to be an acceptable solution as soon as I came up with it. But I had to try something.

Now she is asleep, the tech came in and raised the rail back up, which did not wake her up. Halleluia!!

But, I am awake now and it is pointless for me to try to go back to sleep because the tech said he will be waking us up at 5:00. Which is in a mere hour and 15 minutes. By the time I got to sleep, it would be time to wake up. Boo.

Oh well. This isn't about my sleep, it's about Rissa's. And she is sleeping pretty well, so it's all good.

I can always take a nap. Or two. Or seven.

**UPDATE**

It is 6:30 am and we are back home. I am about to go take my first nap of the day, but I wanted to give you all a little info on the how the night went, test-wise.

I asked the tech for his opinion of the preliminary results, assuring him that I fully understood that it is not official until the report goes up the chain of command and the doctor tells us what's up. He said that her CO2 levels looked really good, as well as her pulse-ox levels. He did say that she had a few, very brief periods of apnea throughout the night, but that is not uncommon with trach kids. She slept really well, going in and out of the different stages of sleep appropriately.

Of course, we will wait for the official word before we get too excited but, all in all, it was a successful night!

Goodnight for now...