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Preemie Books
The
Preemie Parents Companion: The Essential Guide to Caring for Your Premature Baby
in the Hospital, at Home, and Through the First Years by Susan L Madden M.S,
William Sears MD, Jane E Stewart MD
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Your
Baby's Apnea Monitor: Friend or Foe A
lot of preemies are now discharged from the hospital with apnea monitors.
It is sometimes hard to look at this hardware as a friend, when the high
pitched chirping never seems to end. Both
of my sons were discharged on apnea monitors. This was the only way we could
bring them home since our hospital's criteria for coming home was one week or
seven days apnea and bradycardia free. Although our boys did not have a great
deal of alarms, some of them did require gentle stimulation. I
was terrified when we were discharged from the hospital with our first son. He
was doing well in the hospital, no A's (apnea alarms) or B's (bradycardia) in 6
days. He only had one night to go before he was discharged and he had a real
alarm, one that required vigorous stimulation. I did not think that the monitor
would be bad. He only had one alarm in 6 days. On the way home he had 6 alarms
in one hour. I was ready to take him back to the hospital. I thought this is
wrong, he is not ready for discharge. At
first his monitor was on him day and night except for baths and an occasional
"skin rest". Our first
few weeks at home were horrid. I was up constantly checking him after alarms,
and then nursing him every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We filled countless pages of alarm
records. His chest was beginning to break down from the constant irritation of
the belt and various sticky electrodes. I became brave. I would start to
nurse/feed him and administer his
meds without being attached to the monitor. These were things that caused him to
alarm, just a choke would cause an apnea alarm. Later,
as a couple of months passed, and numerous alarms, I began to view my alarm
record as my "excuse column". I told the doctor, "This baby is
healthy and I know that not all of these alarms are real." I also began to
take the monitor off more frequently. Our pediatrician reassured us that if you
put a full term newborn on an apnea monitor that they too would have an
occasional alarm. By
age four months, we were free from the monitor. The first few nights it was
difficult, I slept less than I did
with our monitor constantly screeching. We soon were able to rest easy knowing
that his body was growing and maturing. It
seemed like we had just gotten away from one monitor when our second son was
born prematurely. I vowed that with a toddler running around I could not endure
the sleepless nights of nursing and answering the calls of the alarms. I had
told the NICU patient care advocate, "NO monitor this time." When
it came down to the only thing holding our second baby in the NICU was his apnea
and brady alarms, we decided once again that together we could do it. My husband
and I were a team. After
talking to our Neonatologist, and understanding his views of the monitor I knew
I could be more independent. He explained that I did not have to be a
"slave" to the monitor, but make it help me. I was able to keep the
monitor off of the baby as long as he was in my arms, or very close to me or my
husband while he was sleeping. If
he was in his bassinette or asleep where I could not eyeball him, I was to keep
the monitor on. I also knew with
him the things that would trigger his alarms; sometimes bottle feeding as
opposed to nursing, and his routine baby shots especially the synagis injections
for RSV protection. These were the
times when I used the monitor the most. I
also kept his monitor record as an "excuse record". Together the Neo
and I would decide which alarms were real, and which were due to moving leads,
or just a "choke". I
would keep a meticulous record of alarms and with the monitor company
downloading the alarm information into their computer we were able to compare
notes even over the phone. Our
second monitor experience was much less stressful than the first. It was not
even due to the fact of one baby being worse than the other, it was my husband
and my perception of the monitor. This time it was our friend not foe. Some
Helpful Tips to Making Your Baby's Monitor Your Friend:
Kelly
Feevey is an RN and the
proud mother of two sons born premature. She enjoys the outdoors, spending time
with her husband and most of all, learning about the world through the eyes of
her precious sons. Copyright © 2000 Kelly Feevey. Please contact Kelly for permission to reprint. |
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