Brogan home with Oxygen

I was so relieved to bring my new baby home. I then realized how short 7 feet is. That's the length of the tubing attached to his oxygen bottle. So you can only move 7 feet in any direction with the baby. Adults get 50 feet of hose, but babies only get 7 feet.

In my case, that meant I could only move from the changing table to the bed and over to the computer - which is all in the same room.

Not ONLY was he attached to his oxygen tank, he also has his Oximeter lead on his foot. This measures the baby's oxygen level and heart rate. If these drop below a certain mark, a very loud obnoxious alarm sounds. So at 1:30 in the morning when he kicks and the lead slips or breaks it's connection momentarily, we're all awake trying to shut that darned alarm off! Even Audrey learned how to reset the machine's alarms.

We did have a portable oxygen system, so I would ask Dusty to "make the baby portable", so we could at least go into the living room. Otherwise, I felt pretty much trapped in our bedroom.

I was so happy after about two weeks of this, when we took Brogan to Mary Bridge Children's hospital for his appointment with the respiratory specialist and were told that he didn't need to be on the oxygen during the daytime anymore. About a week after that, he didn't need to be on it at night either. We still used the Oximeter to check his levels from time to time, but he's been a ok since then.

Audrey and Brogan, 5/26/2008