Over a month ago, one of Finn's doctors made the decision to keep him on the caffeine for his apnea spells. This meant that he would have to come home on an apnea monitor and on the caffeine, but it meant that he could come home sooner.
The monitor is a blessing and a curse, as so many things are. It tells us when he has apnea, bradycardia, or a fast heart rate, so we have the security of being able to see that he's still breathing and his heart is still beating. But he's on a seven foot leash, and we have to drag the thing around with us when we want to move him from room to room. It means that I am tied to that seven foot area when I am home alone, and he needs to be held.
Tomorrow, we are going to do our first download of information, which means we have to find a land line to use as we got rid of ours months ago. The nurses at the apnea program at Children's will then evaluate the data and decide if he needs to stay on the caffeine. My guess is that he won't need it anymore. In that case, they will want him to stay on the monitor for a couple of weeks to see how he does off the caffeine.
(Fritz likes to lay directly in front of it, so we can't see the lights.)It will be odd not to have it. I am used to glancing at it periodically to see those green lights flashing, but I'll just have to get used to life without the crutch. I'm sure I'll be checking on him more and more, and waking up often to make sure he's still alive, which is probably not much different from any other first-time mother.
3 comments:
Gteat new pictures. Just when you think he can't be cuter, vo-wa-oh-la.... he is!
You're so in tuned with the mysterious ways of motherhood -- which is of course not surprising -- since you were catapulted into this role and could be a star on "Extreme Motherhood" which is not yet ready for prime time.
'Always love your observations. You're so right about the breathing anxiety around your newborn... I can remember so many nights/mornings/afternoons leaning in close so I could actually feel each breath! Yup, the roller coaster goes on. Hugs to all. -O. M.
Faeries. Yes. I think they are the answer to the energy issues. Either that or unicorns. :)
I hated the monitor. OK was more of a love/ hate with it. I hated when the boy would wiggle loose and the alarm would go off. Hated the "leash" aspect of it.
Our NP had us wean him off of it- from wearing it 24/7 to just sleeping to just at night.
It was still scary once we got the OK to take him off of it.
I'm slightly jealous that you can just upload the information yourselves. We had to go to the lung center NP to do that (plus they wanted to check height/ weight on the boy... naked... which was fine until the day the boy peed... never knew a kid could have such an arc)
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