The Sleepies

We are officially a house full of sleep-deprived zombies.

At least that's the word from the sleep doc.

In January we took Abbie in to see a sleep disorder doctor. Why?

Her teacher told me she fell asleep on the way home from a field trip (how does anyone do that with a bus full of 2nd graders?), she's actually done that twice. And within about 5 minutes she's usually out cold whenever we go anywhere in the car (and I mean out cold, music could be blaring she doesn't hear it, and I mean anywhere, even to the grocery store). Add to this that we know she's up here and there through the night, is constantly exhausted and hard to rouse. We've seen a big swing change in her personality over the past year or so, she does well in school, but crashes the minute she walks through the door.

So off to the doctor we went.

She asked us questions like, are we consistent with bedtime? Yes, except on vacation! Otherwise it's 8 p.m., maybe 8:30 on the weekends (let me tell you we don't have a choice unless we want grumpy children, these kids never sleep in!).

Does she move around a lot in her sleep? Well, that depends on what your definition of is, is. You see Kiersten is a bed thrasher, arms and legs fly everywhere all night, and Abbie, well, she may move around a lot but not like Kiersten.

Does she sleepwalk? No, but Kiersten does, usually 4-5 times a week.

You get the idea. She checked Ab's throat, her tonsils were so small that the doc could barely see them. Since Abs has relatives with sleep apnea, she recommended a sleep study. More on this later.

Then she recommended we bring Kiersten in! We hadn't even thought about it, although Kierst can be pretty lethargic too, and constantly seems to have evening headaches.

We brought Kierst in and after talking with her she ordered blood work to check her iron levels, I guess low iron levels can contribute to restless leg problems, a good place to start. Then she told me that I need to see an adult sleep doc! Haha! A little revelation, but really not a surprise, I'm a terrible sleeper, always have been, and am always exhausted, restless leg? You know it!

Kierst's pheratin levels were low, she's now taking iron which has cut down her sleep walking to maybe once a week, her focus has improved, and her headaches seem to be gone! Hooray!

Abbie's appointment for a sleep study was scheduled for May, but thanks to a cancellation we were able to get her in Monday night. It took an hour for them to hook her up to all the wires and machines, I wanted to get a picture but there was no way she would have that!

(Side note here: Chris was on call Mon. night--we were so desperate to get the study done that we decided to chance him having to go in, usually it's only about 1 in 5 calls that he actually has to go the hospital. Haha! He got called in right after I took Abs to the hospital, took Lisi and Kierst with him, they watched a movie while he attended to the "this will only take 30 minutes" procedure. That led to a delivery, which led to other things, 3 hours later the girls were still watching movies in the waiting room, they didn't get home until 10 p.m. Of course he got called throughout the night but didn't have to go in. I was worried that he would get called in right before school, I knew Abs and I wouldn't be home until late, and someone needed to get everyone ready. Wouldn't you know that he got called in at 5:30 a.m.? Fortunately my sis was here and Chris got home by 7:30 to get everyone off. Whew. Talk about sleep deprived :)

Anyway..they did order labwork right after the study to check Abbie's iron levels. Turns out Abbie's legs were moving all night!

No surprise there, (at least if you know Abbie), and apparently the rest of our family!!

I guess each sleep study generates about 1,300 pages of data that have to be interpreted, things like carbon dioxide and oxygen flow, dreaming, heart rate, etc., that are measured every 30 seconds. We won't have the results for another 2-4 weeks, so it will be a while until we know exactly what's going on.

So hopefully in a couple of months we'll all be sleeping better! All of us, that is, except for Chris. Nothing he can do about call!

Baptism

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Salt Lake City for my nephew's baptism, no kids, just me. What a fun time I had with my sister and her family!

Side story: Without kids I thought I'd have peaceful, relaxing flights there and back, just me, my laptop and kindle. Haha! The airline gods were consipiring against me! My flight to Denver was delayed 25 minutes, I only had 30 minutes between flights in Denver. So I spent the first flight biting my nails, hoping to make the connection, once I ran to the other gate I learned the other flight was delayed, too. Yay! Of course, then we spent 45 minutes on the runway while waiting to be de-iced.

And while I'm on the subject of flying I might as well say that on the way back my flight out of SLC was delayed 45 minutes, I (again!) only had 30 minutes between flights. Somehow we made up time in the air, landed 5 minutes before my other plane was to depart, I ran the 20 gates to the other plane (this is when you learn how truly out of shape you are, or at least I am!), fortunately, they were "unofficially" holding the plane for the 3 of us who just arrived. Whew!! Maybe next time I'll just pay the extra $ for non-stop flights!

The first stop after the airport? Dinner from Red Iguana, of course, for the best Mexican food in SLC! (Yes, Cafe Rio is scrumptious, but yum yum, almond mole from Red Iguana, nothing can top you.)

Friday I spent the afternoon with my sister at the BYU Art Museum. I love going to museums with my sister, she's an art junkie, too, we spent our time analyzing, critiquing and just absorbing the art.

The main exhibit at BYU right now is about Carl Bloch. He's a once-famous 19th century Danish painter who fell into obscurity, but whose work was seen by someone at LDS Church Headquarters who felt that his paintings would be perfect for gospel teaching, they've become almost iconic LDS pictures.

If you want to learn about the exhibit, here's the link:http://carlbloch.byu.edu/

If you're a member of my Church, you're probably familiar with Bloch's work, you just might not know that he painted them. I like his use of light and dark (chiaroscuro for art historians like me), his classical figures that portray a scene from the scriptures in a viewpoint that isn't necessarily "classic" (yes, he seems to have been heavily influenced by Caravaggio, he studied in Italy for 5 yrs, again for you art historians). Here's a sampling of his altarpieces, one belongs to BYU, the others are at the exhibit on loan from Lutheran Churches in Denmark:

Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesada:

The Doubting Thomas:Christ and the Young Child:

And my absolute favorite of all--Christ in Gethsemane:

I don't think the reproduction does the piece justice, it really takes your breath away.

Then we went to a delightful Dorthea Lange exhibit entitled "Three Mormon Towns." Here's the link:http://moa.byu.edu/fileadmin/moa/lange/exploring.html. Click on the link for the original Life magazine layout and you can see most of what was in the exhibit.

If you don't know who she is, Lange is a well-known American photographer, her Depression-era photography taken for the government is the most famous of her work. This exhibit showcases her photographs of three southern Utah Towns taken in the 50's for a Life Magazine piece. There were shots of canned vegetables, people attending church, women in aprons, Utah cowboys, I love looking at photography anyway, and this was just a delicious treat. Here are a few images, not necessarily my favorites, but the ones I could get off the BYU website:

Saturday was the main event: my nephew's baptism!

Here are my bro-in-law and nephew, ready to go to the church.

Now ready for baptism!

My nephew is the only grandchild on my side of the family--besides my kids, of course. He has autism, and my sister has really done a great job working with him on her own. He was so excited for his baptism he didn't want to have to wait for talks and singing, once the clothes were on he was ready to go! I love his enthusiasm! The Spirit was so strong during the service, I started crying during the opening song, so did my sister's sister-in-law I was seated next to, we were the ones giving talks and had to keep it together somehow!!

Afterwards, pics of everyone, then a reception at my sister's house.

The Nielson/Decker side who was there: L to R, my cousin, my aunt (not by blood, but love) and her husband, my great-aunt, my 2nd cousin and his wife, me, my sister.

My bro-in-law's family

My sister and me. I guess we've changed a little as we've gotten older, but we still look a lot alike! When we were younger, people would ask if we were twins, but we're six years apart, either I looked older--umm, never happened to me with my chubby cheeks--or she looked really young!

The rest of the visit was spent with Steve's family going swimming, o.k., me watching my nephew and sister swim, going to church, and of course, eating chocolate cake!

Can visits ever last long enough?

Free Time

A couple of weeks ago I was released as primary president at our church. I only served three years but wow! did the time go by quickly!

I know that everyone always says their favorite calling is the one they currently have, but I loved primary! What could be better than spending your Sundays teaching little children about Jesus Christ and how to live a good life? I loved the simplicity in primary, that we talked about the basics of the gospel like believe in Jesus Christ, be baptized, be nice, be honest, pay your tithing, say your prayers, read your scriptures, serve others. Those simple truths are what being a Mormon is all about.

And how I love those children! I think they're the best ones in the whole Church, not that I'm biased or anything! I loved watching the 11 year olds advance to Young Women and Young Men, then seeing those smart boys pass the sacrament, I loved attending the baptisms of the 8 year olds, hearing the children sing songs of the Gospel, giving talks, bearing testimonies, sharing their experiences, asking questions, looking up scriptures, giving hugs. I loved feeling the Spirit bear witness of the life of Jesus Christ and the truthfulness of the Gospel during sharing time, the entire room quiet and peaceful, the children feeling the warmth of the Holy Ghost.

My Sundays just won't be the same.

I've had quite a few people ask me what I'm going to do with all of my free time. Let me just say I never have a problem filling time!

Along with all the other things I normally do, since being released I've painted a bathroom, study room, sewn 2 sets of curtains, helped Chris finish installing a pocket door in our laundry room (including painting shelves, the laundry room, the hallway, down the stairs, can I say how bad oil-based enamel smells?), reframed pictures, worked on taxes, organized a cupboard, volunteered to help out with more hoa and pta things, to name a few. I don't have problem filling my time, I always feel like I don't have enough time do everything I'd like to!!

I'm heading out this morning for a quick trip to Utah to attend my nephew's baptism. Can't wait! I'll post pictures of the laundry room renovation when I get back! Who would have thought we would do renovations on a 3-year old house?

But boy, do I miss primary!!