Goodbye Apie!

Apie, by the way, is the nickname that Grandma Dianne gave to Elizabeth's apnea monitor. ;)

Today someone from Children's Home Health came and picked up the apnea monitor! At her last check up, her doctor said she could be done with it! So I'm glad for a couple of reasons: its easier getting her ready for bed, she's more comfortable at night without the band around her chest, no more worrying about false (or real!) alarms, etc.

But I'm also nervous! I liked having that extra protection, the extra monitoring, just in case something were to ever happen. Even though nothing did since her first "episode." Except for one false alarm, according to the doctor, that scared the crap out of us. Also an alarm went off because something got disconnected. But running in there thinking your daughter isn't breathing to find out something with the wires was off - augh! Such a relief but I think my heart skipped a few beats!

And both of those alarms were within a couple weeks of being done with the apnea monitor. We realized that one of the wires attached to her chest band got stretched somehow, so that is probably what caused the alarms.

So it is bittersweet saying goodbye to Apie. It was really nice having you here, but I'm not totally sad to see you go.

And hey, we'll always have the AngelCare!

A visit to the doctor

Well, these last few days have been fun. Elizabeth takes after her mom in that she can't sleep on her back. Which means that none of us are getting any sleep.



On Friday, we didn't put Lizzie down at all. I was terrified to leave her in her crib. Mom stayed the night with us and we took shifts getting up to sooth her and put her pacifier back in.



Elizabeth's regular pediatrician is out of town, so we made an appointment with another one. He put Lizzie on a medication for reflux (Zantac) and prescribed an apnea monitor and said she should stay the night one night in the hospital for a sleep study.

Then someone from Children's Hospital brought the apnea monitor to our house and showed us how to use it. It involves putting sensors on Lizzie's sides under her arm pits and a band that goes around her chest to hold them on, with wires hanging down that plug into the monitor. He said that she should wear it 23 hours/day unless we hear differently from the doctor. So I called his office and was really surprised when he got on the phone himself! (One of the reasons we didn't go to this doc in the first place is because his office is so busy.) He said that right now she only needs to wear the monitor when she is sleeping away from supervision. So basically at night. If she has another "episode" however, she'll have to start wearing it 23 hours/day.

All I have to say is she better not have another "episode!" She is already soooo grounded.

Meanwhile, to make our week a little more fun, Nate had to get emergency surgery tonight. Last night he started complaining of a stomach ache. It kept getting worse throughout the night and today. He spent most of Lizzie's appointment in the bathroom throwing up. Turns out he had appendicitis. He's out of surgery now and is doing well.

Here's to no medical emergencies in 2009!

Thank You, God

Around 6:00 am Friday morning, Elizabeth's motion monitor (AngelCare) alarm went off. Before I really knew what was happening, Nate was already running to her room.

I immediately followed him, and by the time I got in there, he had already flipped her over (yeah, she used to sleep on her stomach) was shaking her and yelling, "Baby! Baby!" and "She's not breathing!" No response. He kept shaking her and yelling, "Baby!"

I ran over to flip the light on. I ran back to the crib and realized the light still wasn't on. So I ran back and flipped the light on. I realized later that I probably opened her door the first time. Apparently I wasn't thinking straight or something.

In the meantime, Nate was still yelling and shaking her. He breathed into her mouth. Nothing. He breathed into her mouth a second time. I reached out and did about five chest compressions. Then she finally started squirming. Wow.

This whole ordeal from her alarm going off to her coming to was probably about 20 seconds. It felt like an eternity. I have never been more scared of anything in my entire life. She was pretty out of it for a while. Nate picked her up first and held her. I was shaking too bad. She was squirmy and wiggling around, but didn't cry for a while. I think I sat down before Nate gave her to me, but I'm not sure.

I fed her and changed her diaper and clothes, just wanting to keep her awake. She wanted to go back to sleep so bad, but I was way too scared to let her. She had a really weak cry for about 5 seconds. Boy was that a beautiful sound.

The on call nurse told us to go to the ER since Elizabeth wasn't breathing for over 30 seconds. They did all kinds of tests on her - chest x-rays, blood sugar, oxygen, complete blood screen, etc. They couldn't find anything wrong. Everything was perfect. By the way, she did NOT like getting her foot poked for the blood tests or getting her temperature taken. She let out some good loud healthy cries, which were heartbreaking and wonderful to hear.

I thank God that she's okay and for the AngelCare monitor. The ER doctor told us this would have been a classic case of SIDS and that this monitor is the best money we've ever spent. It makes me nauseous to imagine what we would have woken up to in the morning if we didn't have that monitor.