Apnea

[alparen]

Samantha was taken off her breathing tube last week and put on NIPPV where she was doing super well so they turned off the breaths so now it's just CPAP for her but she is still having her apnea spells and she is 30 weeks and 3 days.
The apnea spells scare me so much. They didn't expect her to last on NIPPV for more than a few hours due to her past of having her breathing tube taken out and her lungs collapsing. So far so good! She is not doing as well on cpap so they said they might have to turn the breaths back on for her. She had a cluster of spells this morning and the nurse had a hard time getting her to start breathing again consistently but now she said she is doing fine. I am just so scared she ends up back on her breathing tube which I know can happen.
When they took her breathing tube out last week there was a yellow mucas coating it and it came back positive for infection so the had instantly took blood from her and started a round of antibiotics just in case but luckily her blood work had come back negative for infection so she was a lucky munchkin. Just wondering how long the apnea spells lasted for all your babies?

 

[PrincessPea]

hey mrs, didnt want to read and run

My LO kept having the apnea spells right up until a few weeks before we took her home. She had them quite a lot whilst on CPAP etc and then they got better and better (although she still had them) but then we started trying to bottle feed her and she had them whilst feeding and usually needed a wee bit extra oxygen whilst feeding for quite a bit. And again eventually she got stronger and stronger and had them less and less. She actually probably had them right up until a week before we went home its just they got less and less frequent and not nearly as bad.

It will come together eventually, stay strong.

 

[25weeker]

Hi unfortunately apnea's are very common. My lo had them until about 38 weeks but they do start becoming less frequent.

I hope she stays on cpap xx

 

[Twinsmom]

Hi,

My sons apnea spells lasted until he was 44 weeks but that is definately on the longer side of things. He just got out of the hospital 10 days ago. It even surprised the doctors and nurses that it took him that long as he had no other complications from being born st 27 weeks and 5 days. Initially they always would tell me they usually grow out of their apneac spells before their due date but they can go up to 44weeks in rare cases. My daughters apnea stopped much sooner and she had a more complicated journey home. So it does really depend on the baby. She made it home 5 weeks sooner then my son.

They made us wait 9 days for him to be spell free before he could go home even though it's usually 5-7 days. It's been scary having him home, I think I will worry for a while about the apneac spells but I have a monitor at night that vibrates if it doesn't sense movement for 15 seconds and alarms if no movement after 20 seconds. It helps me sleep at night.

The spells do get less frequent and scary. I got to the point where I never thought he would get over them and come home but he finally did it after taking his time. We got so use to watching the baby for signs of spells we could tell the fake ones from the real ones.
All the best with you little one and keep us updated on the apnea spells. It becomes such huge milestones when they start making it days with mo spells vs hours but they can do it.

 

[alparen]

They turned the breaths back on a few days ago. She is still having spells but they haven't been as bad. She has only had one bad one since. The rest have been just minor. She is starting to do things on her own when she has a spell. She'll just start breathing again. They said it's mostly when she is sleeping. She gets so comfy and falls in to a deep sleep and then her brain forgets.

 

[PrincessPea]

Great news dear.

That is common in prems. My LO used to do the same thing - it was explained to us as - they shouldnt be breathing on their own yet so sometimes they just 'forget' and it is so true.