No CPAP for Me

I had my follow-up appointment to get the results from my sleep study. The verdict: I don't have sleep apnea. Thank God! The overall impressions from my sleep study indicate that I had some spontaneous arousals from sleep that couldn't be linked to anything in particular. The sleep medicine doctor said they're probably just associated with my pregnancy....probably my frequent restroom breaks or attempts to find a comfortable sleeping position. I did have a few abnormal breathing incidents (8.9/hour), but they only occurred during REM sleep, which apparently isn't uncommon because this is the most relaxed state of sleep. The most important finding is that my oxygen level is not dropping to a dangerous level during the night. That was great news, both for me and for Zoe! My snoring was rated as "mild", which was a surprise because Trevor makes it seem as though he's sleeping with a lumberjack at night. LOL. In the end, there will be no CPAP for me. YAY!!! The doctor wants me to consider sleeping with a mouth guard to help with the snoring, but mainly to help with the limited breathing interruptions they detected. Apparently the base of my tongue is wide, which predisposes me to breathing problems during sleep. My mouth looks like this according to the doc (grade IV diagram):




Due to the lack of clearance between the base of my tongue and my throat, my air passage becomes obstructed when my soft pallet relaxes. This is more than I ever wanted to know about my mouth, tongue and air passage. Using a mouth guard will help to bring my tongue forward and clear my air passage; however, prolonged use of the mouth guard can cause me to develop an under bite, so I'm not crazy about that. We'll see. I think I'll wait until Zoe is born and see if things improve.