Our new machine

For the past couple of weeks, Luke has been choking on his own saliva, seemingly. He turns red, his eyes bug out and he can't catch his breath. Pretty scary. Last night he was laying in his crib with Andrew, getting ready for their baths, and Adam noticed that he was choking again. So, we yank him out of his crib and flip him over and hit him on the back to help him "cough up" whatever it is (saliva). Again, pretty scary. Since this was about the 4th time this has happened I decided to get him into his pediatrician today to see what was going on. I mean, if this has happened 4 times in front of us, what's going on when we're all asleep??
The doctor is not sure why this is happening. It could be a number of things; reflux (which I am convinced he has and have been sure of this since he was in the hospital as a baby), a cleft in his epiglottis, his esophagus is not working correctly, or apnea. Our first step is to go the reflux route, and Luke is now on a prescription for that. If that doesn't work, we will get a swallow study done.
In addition to the meds, Luke has also been put on an apnea moniter. Today Adam and I had to go to Children's Hospital to learn how to use the moniter and also take a CPR class. Lucky for us, he has never turned blue or anything, and we have him "plugged in" right now just to see what happens. So far nothing has beeped, which is a great sign. Tonight will be our first night and I'm totally freaked out as to what I will do if that thing goes off! Hopefully it never will...
It's a good thing to moniter, just so we know that he's ok during the night, but it's sad because he can't sleep with Andrew anymore, and poor Andrew if that thing beeps (and poor Shaggy - he'll totally lose it!).
At least it doesn't bother him. He's just as happy now as ever - hooked up to those wires, and he doesn't even realize what's happening. It will be very interesting to see what happens...