Apnea monitor constantly going off

[Anonymous]

Apnea monitor ?

My dd left the hospital 1 1/2 weeks ago with an apnea monitor. The whole time we were in the hospital, her heart rate and breathing rate were fine. For the first week and a few days, the monitor only went off for problems with the leads coming off or moving down. On Thursday, the machine went off a few times showing low heart rate and apneas. Then on Friday morning, it went off a few times. I put on new leads and when I turned the machine on, it started beeping continuously showing heart rate and apneas. I called teh company and they came to switch out the machine. I haven’t received the info from them regarding the first machine, so I don’t know if the beeps were false alarms or not. Anyway, since Sofia has been on the new machine, it has been beeping A LOT showing apneas (never any high or low heart rate). It happens only when she is sleeping. The first night, she slept in her bassinet on an incline and it went off almost every 15-20 minutes while she was sleeping. The next night, we had her in her bouncy seat and it went off less frequently but still often enough to give my heart a bunch of scares. It happens during the day, but mostly at night. I have spoken to the dr and his nurse. They’ve pretty much said that it is probably the sensitivity of the machine, since every time it beeps, she is breathing and there is no color change on her face or body. So…I’m writing to see if any of you who have more experience with the monitors have been through this and if you have had the monitoring compnay come out to change the settings on the machine. I am getting ready for my 3rd night of ZERO sleep and dh is going back to work tomorrow. I don’t know how many more nights I can do this. Thanks!

[hellbennt]

oh do I remember those days

we taped over the speaker to make it not as loud (still was!)

and used surgical tape to tape down the leads- eventually poor baby’s skin came off with the tape– he was all raw- but we were able to last awhile with the tape & it did help to keep those suckers on there…

all I know is that it SUCKS! I’m sorry I dont have better advice, just empathy- jonah was on the monitor I’d say for 3 months but by the end maybe of 2 months we just put it on at night- couldn’t take it anymore!

[Anonymous]

The wierd thing is, the leads are staying on. The machine is going off saying that she is having apneas, but from what we can tell she isn’t. If she falls asleep on me and the machine goes off, I can tell that she had been breathing the whole time. I’m going to try to solve this today. I think it’s an issue with the machine.

Thanks for your response!

[Anonymous]

If her breathing is shallow, the machine might not be able to pick it up, so the machine is reading apnea. Even if she has very shallow breathing, you would want to know that, too. Have you called the doctor to see what they think?

[Anonymous]

That sounds scary! Is there a different brand of apnea monitor you can try?… Good luck sorting things out.

[Anonymous]

when we brought sylvia home from the hospital—she was on oxygen and an oxymeter—we had problems with the apnea monitor going off when they came to set the machine up. it scared me to death and i called the doc. he asked how the baby looked. he said how the baby looks is alot better of an indicator than what the machine is saying. she had not been on an apnea monito at the hospital, so i am not sure why they sent her home on one. the settings on the machine were just too high, so with the docs permission, they reset the settings. new babies sound so irregular in their breathing—-and that is normal. if the machine settings are too sensitive, you will have it going off all the time—–and the things are sooooo loud. i remember stuffing a blanket in front of the speaker to try and muffle it. i think that once the settings were changed, the monitor only went off once. we were able to get rid of the apnea monitor really quickly—-but she was also on an oxymeter which would have alerted us to potential problems.

having your baby hooked up to any machine is such a pain. sylvia was hooked up for a month. sammie had jaundice and we had to have her on a billy blanket for several weeks—that was a pain, too.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your responses!

THe monitoring company is coming tomorrow to change out the machine. The memory filled up in 3 days…that’s how much it has been going off. My dr. said the same thing….that if the baby is breathing and looks nice and pink when it goes off, not to worry, it is probably a false alarm. I will talk to the therapist about the machine’s settings tomorrow b/c I think they are too sensitive and I need some sleep!

We had an appointment with the gastro today…he gave me great news. He said if there are no incidents in the next two weeks (making one month incident free), then I can go out of the house without the monitor and just use it at home. With my toddler and newborn, it is just too difficult to venture out with her attached to the machine. Her heartrate and breathing were fine in the hospital as well. I think it is just standard protocol to put them on a machine after leaving the hospital.

Anyway…thanks again for your responses.

[Author]

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