Over the course of the last school year Ryan complained about being tired - a lot. We chalked it up to him finding a complaint that gets results. If he's really, really tired he can go lie down in the nurses office. But it persisted. So in addition to talking about the other behavior stuff with Ry when we visited his Doc in March, we mentioned his 'not sleeping' complaint. He claimed he wasn't sleeping at night. Other than chatting with Kyle for a while before drifting off, and continually getting out of bed earlier than I'd like, I wasn't seeing it. And so, didn't really believe him. But I took his plight seriously enough to chat with the doc. She was immediately concerned - she saw a link between nighttime and daytime (this is why she gets large chunks of our money and holds a medical degree - let me test my software thank you very much). She gave us some pointers on changing up our bedtime routine - and that if that didn't do it she wanted a sleep study done.

So we turned off all things with screens (TV, games, computer) at 7:30 with bedtime at 8:00. At 8:00 we actually read something (currently the 2nd Harry Potter), then we say goodnight. Most nights they are both asleep by 8:30 - sometimes they chat until 9 (after being reminded several times that they are supposed to be asleep. Ry tends to get up around 6am - sometimes much earlier.

After a week or so I also gave them 2" memory foam mattress toppers. This resolved the 'my mattress is lumpy' complaint. In fact Ryan declared for the first time ever that he slept 'GREAT' - but that was just once. Then he went right back to 'i'm not sleeping'. So I told him that if he finds himself lying awake at night, unable to get back to sleep, to come down and sleep with us. So that I know. And he did. He came down one night around 12:30 - snuggled right in. And rolled over. And snuggled in. And turned the other way. Repeat over the course of 4 hours. Yes, he really was having trouble. So I send email off to the Dr and she ordered the sleep study.

We went last night - treated it like an adventure :o) he actually enjoyed himself I think (me, not so much - lumpy foldy mattress for me combined with waking up every time the tech came in... i'm a little cranky and tired today).

From jul09

We won't get the results for a while I think. The Dr didn't actually tell us how long, but from what I'm reading I'm expecting a week, maybe two. Mostly, she's looking for Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Which is usually caused in children by abnormalities in the mouth. Like tonsils and adenoids that are too big, or swollen, or just don't fit quite right. I'm reading a lot about how this is resolved by removing this offending bits of tissue. On the one hand, if this is what is causing so much trouble at school - I would love to have an answer. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want my little guy to have surgery yet. (Even though we know several kids who have already undergone this ...) I don't know if the CPAP machine is an option for him or not. His Dr and I haven't had this part of the discussion yet. So I'll wait for the results and go from there. In the meantime I have all these wicked cute pics of him LOL

From jul09

From jul09