Within a few days, the false alarms really got to us. I was so sleep deprived that I started sleeping though the alarms. Luckily, my mom and dad could hear the alarm - so could the neighbors. We called the monitor company and found out how to change the setting so that it wouldn't go off quite as easily. We reset it to 20 seconds instead of 10 and it didn't go off very often at all - only when the wires slipped.

The monitor company came at the end of the week and looked at the recording of the apnea episodes. Not one of them lasted more than 12 seconds. They called the doctor and he said the acid reflux was probably making her gag a little. He decided that Katie wasn't in true danger from skipping 1 to 2 breaths occasionally and they took the machine away before I could throw it out the window.

I felt an instant sense of calm. I felt like I might be able to gain control. Too bad it didn't last very long. A house with a gerdling is seldom quiet for long.

Read Beth's third post about her daughter's early life with GERD.