A Big Scare!

Let me preface this by saying that Rebekah is fine, thanks to the wonderful medical equipment that we have been blessed with.

This evening we put Rebekah in bed around 7:30.  She was tired, but that is usually the case at bedtime.  We've been keeping her up in the afternoons instead of letting her take a nap.  It has worked really well, and she is actually tired at bedtime instead of playing in her bed for 2 or 3 hours after bedtime.  Rebekah seemed fine all day, and she rolled over and went to sleep almost immediately.

Drew and I were downstairs almost an hour later when Rebekah's sat monitor alarmed.  Drew went up to check on Rebekah, and we both assumed that she had just pulled the probe off, or that she had gotten twisted in the cord and it was loose.  When Drew called me to come upstairs just a minute later, I knew that the probe hadn't come off.

When I got upstairs, Rebekah's oxygen sats were 81% (she is normally 95%-100%).  As we stood there for a minute, she dropped to 80%, and then to 79%.  I started turning her oxygen up (it is normally at 1/2 liter when she sleeps), and I got up to 1 and 1/2 liters when her sats dropped again to 72%.

Drew had rolled Rebekah over onto her back and started shaking her to wake her up.  She was either very deeply asleep or unresponsive.  Either way, he couldn't wake her up.  He then sat her up and started lightly patting her cheeks.  Finally she woke up and her sats popped right back up to 100%.  The whole episode only lasted about five minutes, but it felt like we were watching time in slow motion.

After Rebekah's sats came back up, we let her roll over and go back to sleep.  We watched for a few minutes, and she seemed to be fine.  We will definitely be sleeping light tonight, and I plan to call cardiology first thing in the morning to let them know what happened.  This episode seems to confirm for us the need to have Rebekah evaluated by the sleep doctor.  Hopefully sooner rather than later!  I do plan on calling the after hours cardiology number if this happens again tonight.  Have any of you heart moms had something like this happen with your kiddos?

We thank you so much for your prayers.  This just reminds me that even when we think Rebekah is doing well, she is still a heart baby and always will be.  Really, there is never a time that we can relax and say she's out of the woods and doing fine.  Praise the Lord that we have medical technology available to us that can literally help to save Rebekah's life.

Nancy