Kaitlyn... the first years

So, I finally get to see my baby for the first time 8 hours after she was born. They said that since she was born so early they had to monitor her for a while before I could see her. Kevin was with her most of the time, but I wanted nothing more than to know what was going on. Finally I get her at about 8:30 in the morning (after not having slept the entire night), and held her in my arms for the first time. I looked down at her, and my heart instantly belonged to her. We struggled with the normal things first time parents do. I tried to feed her with little or no success. Right after one of her feedings that same day, she had fallen asleep and suddenly stopped breathing and turned blue while I was holding her. I screamed at Kevin, and he ran her to the nurses station. By the time he got her to the nurses she had resumed breathing and regained her color. The nurses told us we were paranoid first time parents..... So the journey began. We took Kaitlyn home 3 days later, and everyone in our family had shown up to welcome her home. During our hospital stay a few little cleaning fairies (my mom, dad, Peggy and Curtis) had gone over to our house.... They did all the laundry, cleaned the whole house, and put the nursery together. I was so relieved because I could barely walk let alone clean. We had a rough first night since Kaitlyn continued to have difficulty breathing during sleep. We went to the doctor the following day, and discovered she has jaundice. The doctor ordered a billi light to be delievered and she spent the new several days attached to a machine 24-7. That made feeding even more difficult, and required I have someone with us around the clock. After my c- section I was not allowed to lift more than 20 lbs... The machine she was attached to weighed about 30, and I could not lift the machine and Kaitlyn in order to mover her. My parents stayed with us for about a week. I took care of Kaitlyn during the day, and my dad stayed up all night long and held a very fussy Kaitlyn all night. Others began to realize I was not paranoid, and that Kaitlyn was in fact not breathing regularly during sleep..... The road continues to get harder to travel, but my angel is so worth it. We had to have Kaitlyn around us constantly because we discovered that is we shook her softly when she stopped breathing she would resume breathing. She slept upright in a swing next to our bed with my hand resting softly on her chest. We woke up about 100 times per night to softly jostle our baby awake. She continued to fuss regularly and projectile spit up became a constant scene in our home. Finally at about 5 months old and 3 pediatricians later Kaitlyn got sent to see a few specialists..... She went to a gastroenterologist and a pulmonologist. The pulmonologist set her up with a sleep study around July 23, 2005 where she was hooked up to about 35 electrodes all over her face, head, legs, feet... they were everywhere. The nurse comes in between 5 and 6 am and begins ripping these electrodes off of my sleeping child. Kaitlyn wakes up wailing in pain, and had bruises for days due to the harsh treatment of this nurse. She didn't sleep through the night again after that night until she was over 4 years old. Later that day we get a call to go over her results. She had stopped breathing 266 times in a 6 hour period. So, I discovered I wasn't a paranoid mom afterall. My precious little girl had all 3 kinds of sleep apnea, a disease called laryngomalacia, and acid reflux. She got put on a special formula, an acid reflux medicine, and some medication for her bowels. Life started to get a little less fussy, but every bit as stressful.