Nighttime Waking

You may think this is a blog about Mckenna and her nighttime sleep habits. However, this blog has nothing to do with Mckenna, and everything to do with my hubby.

As some of you may have read in the past, Ronnie sleeps with oxygen at night. A few years back, he told his doctors that he often woke up with headaches, so they did a sleep study and found that his sats were dropping at night...hence the headaches. So ever since then he's been sleeping with 2 liters of oxygen, breathed in through a nasal cannula. Ever since he started sleeping with oxygen he sleeps so much deeper, better, quieter and wakes up with no headaches.

You may ask yourself, "quieter?!" And the answer is, "yes...quieter!" I'm sure most of you CF spouses, and maybe some parents, can related. There is a certain "snore" that Ronnie does sans oxygen. It's a half snore, have gasp sound, that is loud enough to make it hard to sleep. He's slightly loud when he's sleeping on his sides and really loud when he's on his back.

So I'm sure you're wondering why I'm posting this and what it has to do with me. I am the oxygen police. In the night if I hear loud breathing, I reach over and feel his face to see where the cannula is; when I get back into bed after feeding Mckenna, I feel his face; when I go to the bathroom and come back to bed; I check his face when I hear a "pufffshhhhhhhh" sound (which is almost alway the nasal cannula blowing into his eyes); I feel his face when he's breathing really loud. I feel his face and wake him to fix his oxygen at least 2-3 times a night. I do it for him (so he sleeps better) and I do it for me (so I sleep better not listening to him). Annnnd I also do it because when he's slightly awake I can say, "snuggle me," and he will! Hehe!

What's the point of this post? There isn't one. Other than maybe if you or your loved one wakes up with headaches it may be a good time to do a sleep study. And I'd love to hear from those of you who wear oxygen at night...where all have you found your nasal cannulas? I'm often shocked where I end up finding Ronnie's. Anyone have tips for keeping it in place?