seriously need advice about Bradycardias

I have already posted this once earlier today, but I never got any responses, and idk where else to turn!! I just wish someone would know what I'm going through, and could let me know whats going on, or atleast if it's gonna be okay!

Just had twins 3 weeks ago tomorrow, and I was 33 weeks and 6 days along when I went into preterm labor, had a boy and a girl, 5lbs 7 oz, and the girl was 4lbs 11oz.
The twins got mediflighted up to a bigger hospital because of all the problems they had being preemies and all. Well they didnt get to come home til last Thursday.
All is well now, except my little girl was sent home with an apnea monitor. The doctors never explained to me whats going on. I've called and asked their doctor, their cardiologist, the nurses, the practioneer, I even have a home health nurse come out every other day to do regular check ups, and I even asked her, no body really could tell me exactly what was happening.
They gave me an apnea monitor, which is when the baby forgets to breath, and the babies heart rate drops.. I understand that completely, but that isn't what is happening..... My daughters heart rate drops without her stopping breathing. It does it usually twice daily. I've been holding her staring at her when it's went off, she doesn't stop breathing, it doesn't even phase her, actually after her pulse picks back up, she'll sigh, or cry or something, But by looking at her when it's dropped, she appears perfectly normal. Even the nurse that took care of her at the NICU she stayed in for 2 weeks told us that she doesn't stop breathing, but she just said that it's nothing to worry about. Which I was under the impression it was nothing, until they sent me home with a monitor, it drops down to the 60's. Her pulse dropping is called Bradycardias, I've looked them up and did a lot of research on them, and the only thing I can find is apnea.

<blockquote><b>Quoting Shalayna Castillo:</b>" I have already posted this once earlier today, but I never got any responses, and idk where else to turn!! ... [snip!] ... dropping is called Bradycardias, I've looked them up and did a lot of research on them, and the only thing I can find is apnea."</blockquote>




My daughter was on a monitor for a few months and those things can give false readings. Is the pedi getting the report from it? If she was having apnea it would go off BC of her breathing rate. The pedi needs to look into this

Also is ur baby on caffeine as well then?

Yeah, it records everything, then when the memory is 80% full, A green light comes on at the bottom by a picture of like a USB port, and I have to plug a chip in it, and it'll download everything, then I send it off to Life Alert. It has a green light for her breathing, and a green light for her heart rate, when they drop, they turn red, and start alarming. She is just 3 weeks old, and she spent the first 2 weeks of her life in the NICU hooked up to a bunch of machines, and her pulse dropped about 2 or 3 times a day there as well. She isn't on caffeine, Do they give them caffeine if they're having these problems?? The only thing they told me was, when it alarms, try to startle her, and if it doesn't bring fix whatever is going on, to call for an ambulance, and they have her an appointment with the cardiologist in a month

My son is on an apnea monitor and has been home nearly a month now...( He had about 3-4 bradycardia's before he was discharged so thats why they did).. It could very well be the electrodes on the monitor screwing up. Usually any time his heart rate dropped without him breathing, at least with my monitor....the electrodes had failed/were failing. My monitor has an 800 number to call abo Have your doc's talked to you about readouts yet? And they gave my son caffine once a day for quite a while in the Nicu for his breathing, it seemed to help to reduce his bradycardia/apnea events... Honestly what I do when my sons alarms go off, is make sure he's breathing, startle him a little make sure his color is good and try and calm him if he has a high heart rate then check electrodes and so on.

Sorry this is one big run on sentence, I'm quite tired =P Feel free to PM me if you want someone to bounce ideas off of /vent to about the apnea monitor =)

If she looks fine she probably is. If she turns blue I was told to just rub her to get her to respond ? My daughter had brady's during feedings. When she had an A & B's while sleeping the sound of the monitors beeping woke her up. My neno doc told me that she will grow out of them and she did around 5-6 weeks old. The hospital didnt release her until she went 5 days without an episodes and if she had one her time started over.

Did she come home with oxygen also?

Quoting GeekyMom:" My son is on an apnea monitor and has been home nearly a month now...( He had about 3-4 bradycardia's ... [snip!] ... sentence, I'm quite tired =P Feel free to PM me if you want someone to bounce ideas off of /vent to about the apnea monitor =)"

That is the exact thing I do!!! She is breathing everytime its going off, she looks just fine, I do kind of try to startle her, but she's usually already awake looking around. She just gets a little fussy when her heart rate picks back up. It did this about 2-3 times daily in the hospital, her oxygen never dropped on their monitors neither, and it still does it 2-3 times daily home. I did begin to think it was misreading, so I called and got a new monitor, and it's still the same, I'm on my third monitor now. They never gave her caffeine, or even mentioned giving her caffeine, nor did they mention anything about readouts. Thank you, I'll PT you 

Quoting Kettalove:" If she looks fine she probably is. If she turns blue I was told to just rub her to get her to respond ... [snip!] ... her until she went 5 days without an episodes and if she had one her time started over. Did she come home with oxygen also?"

No, she never needed oxygen. her twin brother was on oxygen for 2 weeks, he had a hole in his lung, and a lot of other problems, which he is great now, but she was just fine aside from the bradys, Her pulse just drops, it never rises.

Quoting Shalayna Castillo:" No, she never needed oxygen. her twin brother was on oxygen for 2 weeks, he had a hole in his lung, ... [snip!] ... of other problems, which he is great now, but she was just fine aside from the bradys, Her pulse just drops, it never rises."

I mean her pulse never rises higher then it should, when it drops, it rises back to normal!!
but they sent me home from the NICU with her still doing this, I wonder why they didn't keep her til they quit? I mean, we stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks due to her brothers problems, and she wasn't eating well, but after his problems cleared up, then they sent us on our way.

My daughter was born at 31 weeks and also had the problem with Brady's. I was told that sometimes they can be so quick that they don't affect the child at all. Occasionally she would have ones that would take her a second to come back up from and I would have to shake her, but other times it would come back up so fast that she wouldn't even react. But like everyone else said, there could just be a glich in the monitor. I know while I was staying in the hospital with her that would happen a lot, it can't always be 100% accurate.