(JessFinds) WTF?

Poor Miss Crab! I took her to her overnight sleep study last night and it was such a disaster. They did not allow us to show up until 8pm (a hour past her bed-time) and they did not get her hooked up to all of the machines until 9pm. It was like she was set up for failure. She was overtired and overstimulated by 10pm and by 11pm she hit her wall.

She was so good, putting up with all the poking and prodding and weird wires and nubs and stickers all over her. Goop in her hair, strange room - it was just too much for a 3.5 year old. She kept asking me if we could just go home. She really hated the nose tubes (who wouldn't) and every time she touched them the little speaker next to her would go off with a "Don't Touch Those, Parker" and scare her witless. It was so bad.

The staff was great until she "became a problem" and then they were downright rude. At 11pm she started crying and it became apparent that the only way she was going to fall asleep is if she cried herself to sleep. She was not even that loud. I mean, Miss Crab has a different loud scale than most kids but I have heard her freak out WAY worse than what she was doing.

The tech stormed in to our room and said I needed to "get her under control" and said I needed to "soothe her immediately." Apparently the man in the next room was complaining about her. Miss Crab is 3.5 going on 30 and knows when someone is mad at her, it just made her more scared that the tech was mad. I said "well, the only way this study is going to be completed is if she can cry. She is miserable. If she can't cry herself to sleep, then I will have to take her home." I talked calmly with Miss Crab and she said "Mommy, please? Can we just go sleep in the car? I am so tired." That did it for me. I started to unplug her. The tech came in and started to rip off the stickers, which hurt and made Miss Crab cry again ... but the tech kept TSHSSHSHTSHSHSing her really loudly, right in her face. I was about a moment away from body blocking her. I seriously had it.

We left at midnight. She got in the car, pulled her blanket up around her and said "Thank you mommy, I love you." and was completely asleep within 2 minutes.

WTF? I mean, who sets a little kid up for failure like that? These people are supposed to be professionals and do pediatric sleep studies all the time? Why were we not there at 6pm? Why have they not come up with a better way to monitor the children? The whole point is to find out about her night terrors not GIVE her nightmares! WTF!!?