CPAP

My buddy is a not so proud owner of a CPAP machine. We are working hard on getting his sleep apnea under control so now my buddy has to sleep with a little mask over his nose hooked up to tubing that blows humidified air into his nose, forcing his wind pipe to stay open while he sleeps. There are many benefits to a good nights sleep - longer life, happier days and better health being at the top of the list. I must say that my buddy has shown noticeable improvements in his behavior. Don't get me wrong, he is still who he is - just a better version than he's been in a while. I no longer have to lock him in the dog cage... (no I did not really lock him in the cage - he put himself there)



And we haven't had an afternoon that ends like this...



My buddy does not understand that this torture device is what allows him to have the extra energy he's had the past few days. So when he sees me head to his room to get it ready for bed, ie. plug the machine in, he promptly poops from stress. And while my buddy has always woken several times in the night, he used to get himself back to sleep most times without any help from us. Now when he wakes, he freaks out because he's attached to a machine and we have to calm him down and lay with him until he finally falls back asleep. So far this has happened 3 -6 times until about 2am when we give up and take it off him. So while he may have lots of extra energy so he can play, we are a bit more tired than usual.



I like to delude myself into thinking that he will get used to wearing the CPAP mask and happily sleep through the night. I also like to delude myself into thinking that rara might night wean herself and not wake me up every 3 hours.

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We moved into this house in the end of August and did no yard work at all. There are many beautiful gardens... all of which stress me out. But rara and I have made good use of the beautiful weather and started cleaning out the debris. As you can see, there are a LOT of dead plants to remove.






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Today, Grandma and Papa came over to watch the kids so we could get out for a bit. After talking it over, we decided to take the girls with us. We know that sometimes their life is made more complicated by my buddy. He tends to make a lot of the rules. There have been so many times when we've had to leave before they were ready because my buddy was done. So we went for a nice bike ride, strolled through some shops and relaxed at an outdoor cafe enjoying a sweet treat. There was no chasing, shouting or stress. And my buddy LOVES Papa so he was thrilled to play in the backyard with him plus Papa took him in the tree house.