What a rotten night.

Kyle’s sleep study last night could have only been worse if he would have thrown up on me. It was pretty bad, when by 2:45am he still had only slept about 30 minutes the whole night. But then he upchucked chocolate milk and French fries all over himself and the bed, and I almost packed us up and walked out right then and there. And if last night wasn’t already going to cost me $1,300 out of pocket, I would have. But I couldn’t bear to spend all that money and get none of the data we needed, so we cleaned up Kyle and the bed and stayed to give it one last try. Ugh. He finally let the tech put a mask on him and fell asleep somewhat quickly at that point—I imagine he had just finally exhausted himself entirely.

In the end, he slept 4.5 hours, one hour longer than they minimum needed to get the data on the bi-pap titrations for him. I slept considerably less than that. And I am so sick of Baby Einstein DVD’s today that I am tempted to trash them all. We “watched” Baby Einstein from about 8pm until about 4am. Blech. This should be the last sleep study for him.

My next blog should be an account of my experience reading Twilight. Does that sound boring? If I were read this sentence on someone else’s blog a week ago, I would have been turned off—who gives a rat’s patootey over Twilight? But I was curious about the hype around the books and movie and decided to read just half the book to find out how much I hated it. And I love it. Love isn’t even a strong enough word (heh heh, and if you’ve read the book, how appropriate it is that I just said that). I am obsessed with it. As you all should be.

Okay, must go finish book 3 and start book 4. Ta ta for now.

What's better than finding out that your twins both need a second round of sleep studies?

No no, wait for it.... it's finding out that the first round of sleep studies still haven't paid for by insurance. Because, according to the sleep study clinic, our coverage was canceled before their sleep studies occured last month.

Really! Really?! 'Cause I don't recall canceling our health insurance, and I don't recall not paying our monthly premium. Guess I'll be making some phone calls tomorrow.

And a single sleep study costs over $1,000, so in case you're wondering, yeah, this is a major PITA. Don't know what PITA means? Check the second result in a Google search.

Blarg.

Sleep Studies--aka "Mama Gets No Sleep" Studies

What a week of sleep studies it's been. Each baby has now gone through one study. Kyle was first, and it was like a dream come true for him, I'm sure. From the moment I first heard his hysteric shrieking as the tech attached electrodes and sensors and belt monitors onto him, I knew this was going to be nothing but fun. I was right! Kyle and I spent some "quality time" together for a few hours, taking turns crying, until about midnight that night, when finally he "fell asleep for the night" and only woke up crying three times between midnight and 6am. Score! And the tubes in his nose, well he only yanked those out about a half dozen times.

Lauren, on the other hand, handled it like a rock star. And no, I don't mean that we made the tech provide her with a dedicated masseur, Fiji bottled water and bowls of green-only M&M's. I mean that Lauren sat happily while the tech hooked her up, she fell asleep within minutes after I turned the lights out, and barely woke up at all. She never messed with her wires or her nasal tubes. She should be the poster child for pediatric sleep studies.

And me? Well, I was up with Kyle only about 2 dozen times during his study. And with Lauren, I was so afraid she'd hear me roll over or crack my feet (I have to rotate my feet and crack all knuckles and joints that can be popped in my feet before going to sleep) and then wake up and let her wrath loose on me that I couldn't sleep all night. I wished I had some old Mad Men TV episodes on my iPod so that at least I could have done something other than stare at the walls all night.

So hooray. It's done. They may each need one more sleep study, to titrate their bi-pap machines for sleeping at night. But now I know what I can bring to distract them during the setup process (Baby Einstein DVD) and also to schedule our checkin for later in the evening so that they are truly sleepy by the time we need them to sleep.

And their health is still good. I had a scratchy, phlegmy throat last week, but they didn't show any signs of a cold or anything else, so keeping them inside and away from crowds and stores must be working.

Happy Last Weekend Before Christmas Shopping, everyone!