June 15, 2009: Can You Say SLEEP?

After a long 8 weeks, Cohen officially has an apnea monitor! His doctor’s office called us as soon as she received the report from the physical therapist and by the next day Cohen was set up with the monitor. I would say it is a far cry from the fancy monitors at the hospital, as there is no numbers to read. But it is portable and not very big, so that is a plus. The machine’s levels are set by the doctor and if his heart rate goes above or below the levels or if his respiration rate dips too low a god awful alarm goes off…man is it loud, but I guess that is the point, huh? While the guy was showing me how to use the machine we had to test it out on Cohen, 30 minutes on his belly and 30 minutes on his back, and wouldn’t you know he had no apnea on his belly but he had 2 episodes while he was on his back! He promptly told me my baby should never sleep on his back if he is having episodes like that…for which I told him that my intuition told me I should keep him on his belly. Though it was very scary to know he is still having apnea, I finally felt like I was being listened to. The doctor ordered Cohen to be hooked up to the monitor at night and if we are in the car for more than 1 hour straight….so it is a good think the little machine is portable!

So the question is, is it working? Well, the first night we had the apnea monitor Cohen slept from 9pm until 4am! John and I got so much sleep we were exhausted in the morning. The alarm has only gone off once, but I think that was because he was holding his breath while he was pooping :) Overall, the Hawkins Family is finally starting to get some much needed rest.

Here are some pictures of Cohen’s new sleeping arrangements:

He's not a big fan of being naked...this is what he looks like after a bath right before getting ready for bed.

Naked Cohen with his leeds on

Jammies on with the leed wires coming out of the snaps. The big hand is his NICU comfort hand. It provides the security of having someone's hand on them, but since there are not enough nurses to have a hand on every baby at all times, this hand does the job in the absence of a real hand. He absolutely LOVES his hands...yes, there are two and I am fully aware of how silly they look :)

Sound asleep!