Technical Difficulties

The blood oxygen saturation monitor has been driving us crazy, and is depriving us of more sleep than Hannah is. To cut a long story short, we've been through a defective probe, three defective cables, and still are getting readings only by taping the cable to the unit in a certain way to avoid a short in the connection. You'd think that since this is medical equipment, repairs and replacements would be at the door within an hour or so, but apparently not. There are only a couple reps in the area, apparently, and they're busy. Anyway, they brought by a replacement unit a few minutes ago, and it seems to be working fine.

To put things in perspective, Hannah would be fine without the oxygen monitor, but having it around and working allows us to not hover over her bassinet making sure that she's still breathing. Without it, we'd have to wait for the apnea monitor to tell us she hasn't breathed in 20 seconds.

On a completely different topic, we've gotten a few excellent tips and bits of advice from some of you, and it is always prefaced with something like "I know you didn't ask for advice . . . " Well, we're not the sort of people that get offended when offered advice, so go ahead and keep it coming. We need all the advice we can get. If we get any conflicting advice, we'll arrange an arm-wrestling match to settle it.

One more thing . . . the infant grandchild of a long-time friend of my family is battling leukemia. His parents live in Shreveport but have been staying at St. Jude's house in Memphis for many months while Ethan is treated there. Ben and Becky have been an inspiration to Carla and I since before Hannah was even born, and particularly when we faced serious problems with Steven and Hannah. Please include Ethan and his parents in your prayers. We need another miracle.