4/30 - Medical update, Pratt Park, & boys day

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So let's catch up. I had a sleep study done about 1.5 weeks ago. Wow. It was horrible. Here is a picture that I sent Brad to say "goodnight" to the boys. This was before I got the second round of stuff hooked up to my face and nose. It was almost impossible to sleep.  I had to get there at 7:30pm and then I went to bed around 10:30pm. I slept a little worse than normal. They then woke me up at 5:50am and then I had to stay awake until 8am and then I got to take naps every two hours. That doesn't sound so bad huh? Well, let me tell you. It was horrible. I would just fall alseep and then they would come wake me up (you can't sleep longer than 15 minutes). After not sleeping all night and just my usual amount of tiredness, I was beyond exhausted.

I do not have sleep apnea which is good. However, I was right on the borderline for something called Idiopathic Hypersomnia. This means I'm sleepy all the time and my body actually needs the sleep but there is no explanation for it. Awesome huh? While I did fall alseep for all 5 naps, I did not reach REM sleep which is necessary to be classified as narcoleptic. I also just found at the end of last week that I have to do the study again. Blah. I was the only one there last time for the day study because 95% of people only need to be monitored at night. Anyway, I have to do the test next week and we are doing it without me taking my ADHD medicine. I only had one period of REM sleep before and it lasted for just 30 min which equalled about 9% of my sleep time. The average person gets about 20-25% of REM sleep. Well see what happens. I have had horrible migraines for the past month
 and it got really bad this past weekend. Even my prescription medication does not even make a dent in the pain/pressure that I feel in my head.

Here is Aiden below making bracelets for 2 little girls. He was so cute making them.

Both of the boys recently got gardening gloves. Here is Brad helping Aiden put on his gloves. I helped Eli put on his and then they went out and played in the dirt at the end of the driveway for a bit.



On Friday, Brad had the idea to pack-up dinner in the form of a picnic and go to Pratt Park. I wasn't so excited about it but that's because my head has been killing me and my ulcerative colitis has hampering me quite a bit. It was fun. I was gone taking Aiden to the bathroom and when I come back, I see Eli chasing something around a tree. I ask Brad about it and he then informs me that he told Eli he could pet a squirrel if he could catch one. Seriously!! I couldn't help laughing. Eli so wanted to catch a squirrel. He eventually asked me if he could pet the ducks and I advised him that was a bad idea.

While Eli was off chasing squirrels, Aiden asked Brad what Eli was doing. Brad then told Aiden that he could pet a squirrel if he caught one. Needless to say, it wasn't long before Eli and I heard Aiden yelling that he almost caught a squirrel.  In the picture below you can see Aiden in the far left and a squirrel in the far right.

The squirrel got smart and ran up a phone poll. Aiden waited for the squirrel to come down but that didn't happen so he and Eli went off exploring with daddy for a while.

On Saturday, Brad took the boys to the zoo in the morning. They have really been wanting to go and that is not a trip that I can do at this moment because of medical stuff. They had fun it looked like. This is the first time I haven't gone to the zoo with the boys. It was so odd. There are new white tigers at the zoo and Brad took a picture for me. You can see the white tiger laying in the background between the boys.



 The chick-fil-a cow was also at the zoo and Aiden actually stood by him. This is a first. Aiden does not like the big characters like this so I was glad to see that progress made.

Brad fed the boys lunch and then put them down for short naps. He then got them up and took them to a birthday party. It was just Aiden that was supposed to go but I thought I would be back from the dr by then and I wasn't so Brad had to take Eli with him too. It was a Lego Stars Wars themed party. Aiden is too scared to watch any kind of Star Wars stuff but he likes to look at the comic books and beginning reader books of Star Wars. All the boys had fun it seemed. Brad really got in to it (he's even wearing a mask in one of the pictures below) and was teaching the kids how to fight with their light sabers. He did a great job because in the very last picture on the bottom right, everyone is beating him up with their light sabers. It looked like a very cool party and the boys certainly had fun. 

After such a long day with the boys, Brad was a great sport and even gave them baths. He gave Eli a bath in perfect Eli fashion ... outside at the water spicket. Eli loved every second of it. Aiden wanted to come in for a more traditional bath but that's not surprising. He's starting to be able to make it through a bath without crying which is awesome. He still won't soap himself or anything but ..... baby steps forward it what our goal is and we are achieving that.

I was recuperating on Sunday from the massive amount of drugs given to me on Saturday. After the boys got home from church and had a nap, they played outside. It started to rain and Eli obviously doesn't care about that. Aiden ran inside on got his jacket and a hat (he already had boxers on) so he could still play a little. It was barely sprinkling but I'm so glad Aiden has the influence of care-free Eli in this situation.