Tonsils Out!

Most of you know we have struggled with sleep with Avery since, well as long as she's been alive! She started as a baby being up literally almost every hour all night long until she was 7 months. She usually nursed back to sleep or we tried a pacifier. We finally decided to take away the pacifier and see if that would help since we were constantly popping it back in her mouth. (Unlike Karis who had a pacifier literally IN her mouth 24/7 until she was over 3!) When we took the pacifier away it was very easy, in fact she discovered her thumb and I believe it hasn't come out since! But, sleep was still an issue. She'd go through stages where she was WIDE awake in the middle of the night for often an hour or two. She'd go through times where she was up every few hours. And let me tell you mornings with Avery just haven't been pretty. Ever. And travelling....or having people stay here....oh my!! Totally effected her sleep to the point where we didn't even travel with her and avoided as much as possible having more than 1 person stay here at a time.

In December after she spent 2 weeks being up for two hours every night, we decided to talk to her pediatrician about it again. She ordered a sleep study so in January, I went to the sleep center with her and they monitored her all night long. Well, we found out she has sleep apnea! In fact she had 276 arousals. She would gasp, her oxygen would go down, and then she would "arouse" and go back to sleep. Wow. No wonder she has earned the title "Miss Grumpy Pants". I'm grumpy if I don't sleep one night. Wow....4 1/2 years of no sleep???? Poor Girl!

We also found out it is related to "failure to thrive" a diagnosis given to her early on in life for poor weight gain. In fact still at 4 1/2 she is a whopping 30 pounds! Her tonsils are a 3 plus the range is 1-4. So after consulting with the Sleep Specialist Dr., an ENT Dr., another Sleep Specialist Dr. that my Dad knows, and having them all agree, we decided to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. (She also suffers from chronic nasal drip). I thought the constant runny nose was because she lived in a big family and was exposed to lots of colds. Guess not.

So on Thursday morning we went in to the hospital and our little precious had surgery. It was scary for us, but we felt peace. The last few days  have been rough, the recovery is hard, but each day she is improving. She is still on heavy pain meds but she is now eating and drinking small amounts. We are so grateful. And I can't believe the level of support of friends. One friend kept our kids all night the night before since we had to leave at 5 am. Several others have had various kids over so we could focus on Avery, two friends made us dinner, and several brought or sent little gifts for her. I felt kind of guilty, since it wasn't like I had surgery, but let me tell you, it has been so helpful. Avery was a FULL TIME job this weekend, so not having to worry about dinner and all the kids 24/7 was so helpful. So, all this to say, please pray this surgery works, and that sleep is something that happens more regularly around here!! They will also do another sleep study in a couple months to make sure it worked. Otherwise, it's a CPAP machine. Pray the surgery worked!!!!

Oh and no pictures. I just couldn't take pics of her, she looked so pathetic.