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Sitting in the hospital right now
shardian:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on January 24, 2007, 11:02:29 am ---
Was it obstructive or centrally based (brain signals)?
--- End quote ---
Apnea spells in preemies are a developmental thing. Their bodily systems are nowhere near being done deveoping when they are born. The majority of preemies are sent home with a monitor. That monitor also checks for Bradycardia - the slowing of the heart.I guess you could associate it with brain since the problems usually occur while they are asleep, but there are also physical reasons. The lungs are underdeveloped at birth. The different ventilators they are put on cause permanent lung scarring. That is the main problem. While they are small children, the scar tissue takes up alot of space - hence they tend get tire easily (breathing is HARD for a preemie) and have asthma. Once the child matures, that scar tissue only takes up a small percentage of their adult lungs.
I got so used to alarms going off for apnea and brady's for all the babies in the hospital that I tuned them out, which I'm sure is what alot of preemie parents are afraid of doing with their home monitors.
ChadTower:
That's where the forum comes in. Hook that sucker to an air horn so if you don't hear it the people down the street do.
Trin/7dawn:
They did not say, his brain stem was not fully developed, so he would basically forget to breath. I could not tune that thing out! Holy cow, it was really loud! Usually scared him awake, we never had to perform CPR. It also make a horrendous noise when his heart would go up above 220 bpm. That only happened once. Evidently the cough medicine he was on caused him to speed.
I spent 2 hours in the wee hours of the morning watching him bounce non-stop in his Johnny Jump-up. He finally went to sleep and my other son decided he needed to get up.
shmokes:
My baby is just shy of six months now. Already I cannot say how many times I've been thrown up on. Although since her diet consists of breast milk exclusively it's not quite as nasty as Saint's experience.
It's loads of fun, though. Especially now that she's really gaining new abilities quickly. It's devastating to my wife. She thinks that she's developing way too fast (as in, she's before long she's not going to be the sweet, helpless infant she is now), but I'm eating it up. My wife loves infants, but it's about 3 - 8 years old that I can't get enough of. I can't wait to rough house and so on.
BTW, for those in the thread who have a tyke on the way, pick up a copy of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber. That book is made of magic dust. My wife and I were chronically sleep deprived up until a month ago. Maddy would generally sleep 4 hours, wake up and scream and not fall back asleep easily, then it would be every one - two hours for the rest of the night. Every night. Every. Single. Night. So I researched the major theories out there and the Ferber method struck me as the most sensible, so I bought the book and gave it to my wife as a stocking stuffer. We started the system the following morning and that night was unusually good for her. She slept almost six hours, woke up once, and then slept the rest of the night. The following night she slept for ten hours, uninterrupted. Never made a peep. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning for no reason and had a pang of anxiety. I had to go check on her to make sure she was breathing. She has been a wonderful sleeper ever since (except last week when she had a cold).
I'm telling you, the book is made of magic.
shardian:
We just can't catch a break!
We were scheduled for c-section this Friday, we go in for weekly checkup today and the baby's heart rate is too fast. Doctor wanted to go ahead and do a c-section but Michelle had already taken her blood thinner shot this morning. We get to the hospital and they find she has the beginning of a kidney infection, which is why baby's and mommies hearts are pumping like they are running a marathon. The doctor said this is the kind that can kill pregant women if not treated in time. That's nice, isn't it. Anyways, they said it is early on so they will give antibiotics for a few days then go ahead with the scheduled c-section on friday.
:dizzy:
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