an overdue update

Madelyn is teething like a champ. She has three teeth trying to push through all at the same time up top. I feel so bad for her. It's created quite the drool/snot fest for the last few days. Disgusting? Don't think that's news to me. It's super gross.Madelyn's even started to think that her bulb syringe is one of her favorite toys. Ha!
We got a phone call Wednesday afternoon from the Pulmonologist. He said that just about every thing looked perfect on the sleep study except one episode that appeared to be central apnea. The reason it's hard for them to make a conclusive decision on what actually happened is that they have nothing to compare it to (because it was the only time it happened that night) and because it was 1 second shy of "true apnea". Her oxygen saturation dropped rapidly and all other signs pointed to apnea though. He then proceeded to tell us that central apnea is when the brain forgets to breath. The most common "next step" would be to do an MRI since it is a neurological issue.

Due to the fact that it only happened once during the sleep study and it wasn't "true apnea" they were having a hard time determining what to do. This afternoon after a couple of confusing (and frustrating) conversations with the pediatrician's office, the Pulmonologist's office and the company that provides the apnea monitor we finally have a plan as far as what comes next. The DME that provides the apnea monitor is going to Fed Ex all of the downloads to the Pulmonologist on Monday. More than likely they won't show anything more than what was seen the night of the sleep study. If that is the case Madelyn will remain on the monitor for at least two months while she sleeps. If there is more cause for concern, an MRI will be done at Medical City in Dallas.

My stomach was in knots all day. We waited two days to hear more information and I knew I didn't want to go in to the weekend without getting more information than we were given Wednesday. The Pulmonologist's office, which said they were going to communicate with the pediatrician, did not. That left us with a few hours where we were wondering if we were all talking about the same child. I unfortunately let it all stress me out and was snappy about everything. I hate it when I get like that. Then I made Pioneer Woman's Angel Sugar Cookies. Delish. But probably not the best reaction to stress.

Over the course of the last week I have felt peace and rested in the fact that I know Madelyn will be OK (except for my minor freak out session today of course). When we were told on Wednesday that the cause of the central apnea could be "one of several brain abnormalities or malformations", all I could think about was how right on target Madelyn is for her age. She's not behind at all so we knew that if there was a neurological problem, it couldn't be that big of a problem.

Matter of fact, I am pretty sure she is a genius (doesn't every parent? ha!). She's so smart that every time Luke and I start talking about working on her being in her crib, she pulls one of these breathing stunts because she knows it buys her a little more time in the king size. She's a smart one. It works every time like a charm.

I'm off to snuggle with my two favorite people.