This is my little angel first thing in the morning. Like a lot of new parents I have a lot of fears, especially SIDS. I hate that there are no known symptoms or causes. Yes there are precautions you can take like putting the baby to sleep on his back and making sure the crib is free of soft blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. But, it still occurs in 1/1000 live births. Ugh! I do not like those odds.
So we have a fancy schmancy AngelCare monitor. Have you hear of this? It has a sensor pad that you place under the crib mattress. The sensor is supposed to detect movement, even the slightest movement like breathing. If no movement is detected for more than 20 seconds an alarm sounds. The alarm has gone off approximately 5 times!
The first couple were actually slightly hilarious. Kolton had somehow managed to scoot himself into the corner of his crib. The first time it went off it was 80 degrees in the house. When it went off my feet felt planted to the ground. All I could do was scream at Mike "Get Him! Get Him!" Mike ran into the nursery and I followed with a pure sense of dread. I wasn't quite sure what we were going to find. Had he overheated and suffocated? Then Mike screamed "Where is he?!?!" OMG he's not in the crib at all!!! At that point he wasn't sleeping through the night and I remembered I had taken him into our bedroom for a nighttime feed because we had the fan going. Did I fall asleep with him in the bed?!?! But wait that didn't quite make sense since the alarm just went off... As Mike ran out I did the only thing I could do and peer into the crib. He had scooted himself all the way to the top and somehow managed to get turned so he was laying cross ways. Kolton then gave me the biggest brightest smile I had ever seen as if to say "Got You!" To Mike's credit we were already in a panic because of the blaring alarm and he had simply glanced to the spot in the crib where Kolton should have been. Well after that the alarm would go off every time the little man scooted himself up. I was placing a blanket over him tucking the sides in so that it wouldn't move to keep him warm. It got my friend Julie's son to sleep through the night and the first time I tried it I believe Kolton slept for a longer period as well. On another hot night a few weeks ago I did not put the blanket over and guess what? He didn't move an inch! And hasn't since. Ooops! I feel really bad, I guess he was trying to scoot himself out.
So everything was going great for weeks when all of the sudden a few nights ago the alarm went off again! Insert heart attack once more. I ran into the nursery and he was perfectly fine. Hadn't moved and inch, breathing, asleep on his back and everything. The alarm went off again the next night! What is going on? Again he seems perfectly fine. But now I am terrified! My mind races, does he really stop breathing for more than 20 seconds. Is he narrowly escaping SIDS because I'm able to run in and with the slightest touch prompt his breathing again? Is this going to happen every night? Thankfully last night it didn't. I emailed my pediatrician and she said they don't recommend alarms like these for this exact reason. Too many false alarms. Mike thinks I worry too much. But still...I think I'd rather be on the safe side. What do you think?
Even at 3 1/2, if Zoey has a great night and is still asleep when we wake up in the morning, I have a tiny panic in my head that something is wrong when I should just be grateful for getting a rare night of uniterrupted sleep. I worried alot about SIDS early on because while there are certain things you can control, they say we don't know always why babies die of SIDS. It sucks to be powerless! There are so many things to worry about when it comes to a baby, but a mom with older kids actually put it in perspective for me when she said the worry will never end so you have to be as reasonable as you can about it. You get past this stage and then you're worried about autism, riding a bike, going to a friend's house alone and eventually driving and heading off on their own. In the meantime, we moms have to get some sleep to stay sane and deal with it all!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog. Zoey talks about Sophie, Kolton and Aunt Traci and Uncle Mike all of the time and it's really nice to have a way of keeping up with you and show Zoey pictures of Kolton growing up. You're inspiring me to get ours updated after a couple of years in the dark.
Laughed out loud at the part where Mike couldn't find him! Holy buckets that was funny. As a huge fan of the monitor I would recommend turning down the sensitivity. My guess is that it's too high. :).
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