Apnea may happen once a day or many times a day. The more immature the baby is, the more frequent the apnea spells are. As the baby matures, he outgrows the apnea. It is normal for babies to have pauses in their heart and breathing rates. The normal heart rate for babies is between 120 and 160 beats a minute.
Many babies have brief drops in the heart rate.
It is not normal if the baby's heart rate drops below 80 beats a minute and the baby becomes pale or bluish. Babies normally breathe 20 to 60 times a minute. It is normal for babies to stop breathing for up to 10 to 12 seconds. These breathing pauses are considered to be normal if the baby begins breathing again by himself and there is no change in the baby's skin color and no drop in heart rate. Babies may also have a breathing pattern in which they have a breathing pause and then breathe several rapid shallow breaths.