With every beat of my...heart beat oh yeah!

I've got that song stuck in my head now....thanks.

Anyway.

The preemie strikes again.

If you want the short story, skip to the last paragraph. If you want the long one, well, keep reading.

I told you all about the monitor and my love/hate relationship with said apparatus.

Thursday night our relationship came to a turning point.

The alarm kept going off every 2-3 minutes....then wait for 5 minutes....then every 2-3 minutes....then 10 minutes....all while the Microchip was sleeping away contentedly in his swing. It was getting annoying but also getting a bit frightening.

I've been taking his pulse when the alarms go off to see if they match. Unfortunately, they did. His heart rate kept dropping into the low 60's consistently. A normal resting heart rate for this little guy should be around 90.

Then a few times I had to shake him a bit (not like crazy shake people) to get him to raise his heart rate.

Then I called the pediatrician. We had been in contact all week in regards to these brady's so she kind of knew it was coming and in her most calm doctor voice she encouraged me to get to the hospital. Now.

The only problem was...my hubs was enjoying his night out at the HP premiere without his phone! Which I only found out about AFTER I tried texting him to tell him not to rush home but that I was going to get someone to come over and stay with the kids while I rushed to the hospital. Not cool but one of my friends came and rescued me.

I left for the hospital around 10:45. Sadly, I had to take The Hulk. Even more sadly (sadlier?) it didn't have any gas. Great.

I finally made it to the hospital at 11:45. We were fast tracked back to the triage nurse who then fast tracked us into a room. Then we were slow tracked waiting for the resident who yawned her way through her H & P and thought I said seven when I said several and annoyed me through and through. (Have you noticed I'm pretty picky about my medical personnel?) Then the ER doc in charge came in and pretty much told me that he was just going to admit us and not bother with any tests. Ok...

We got to a room around 3am. The wonderful nurses (and I do mean WONDERFUL) got us all settled in and before long a very eager resident with his med student came in and chatted with me for a long time. Then they sat at the nurses station for the next three hours (I kid you not) and watched as his heart rate dropped then bounced right back up then dropped and bounced. You get the picture. They only came running once when he de-satted (or so they thought), it was pretty entertaining.

Around 6:30, the parade of doctors continued. This time with pre-rounds.

8:00. Rounds. How they squeezed 12 doctors into that tiny room is beyond me.

11:00 Neonatologist

All these people didn't want to give an answer. They were all very vague. No commitment. Everyone was waiting for the cardiologist

Including me.

It was rather annoying, even more so because I hadn't slept for 30 hours. I tend to get cranky when that happens.

Finally at 1:15 I had to dash out to sing at a wedding that I've known about for months and months and months. While I was gone, they did an echo cardiogram.

I got back to the hospital 3 hours later, just in time to meet with the cardiologist.

End of a very long story is this: he's a preemie.

Yup. Another "well duh" moment!

His heart rate drops are normal. Get rid of the monitor and quit letting it freak you out!

His heart is not done developing. Most term babies have this duct, called the Patent Ductus Arteriosus, that closes upon delivery. The micro's STILL isn't shut. We knew he had a PDA in the NICU and no one has been overly concerned about it because it isn't causing him any trouble. If it does cause trouble, they will have to operate to close it. Most infants have a hole in part of their heart that closes upon birth (or shortly after or something like that) but, the Micro's still hasn't closed. The is known as an Patent foramen ovale. Neither one of these "problems" is causing him a "problem" so we are just watching and waiting. We have an appointment with the cardiologist in a few months.

All this to say: he'll be fine. Just scary and high maintenance. But fine.