Over the last few weeks, as I’ve slowed down with San’s arrival, I’ve thought a lot about my three experiences of having a newborn in the house. I was chatting with my best friend a couple of weeks ago and she mentioned that when she was a brand new mom, sunset each evening felt like the zombie apocalypse, where she was suddenly flooded with overwhelming dread just thinking about the upcoming night.
As soon as she said this, I remembered this exact feeling so distinctly. During the day after B was born, it was easy to think clearly and feel happy and excited about my new baby, but as the sun went down every night, all I could think about was how terrified I was that my baby would die in the night, or that I’d get absolutely no sleep, and suddenly my thoughts would be completely consumed by fear and dread.
This lasted for several months, and when Fos I had the same experience, and with San it’s surfaced again. Fortunately each time it’s lasted a shorter amount of time — with B it was months before I didn’t hate 7:00pm. With San it only lasted a day or two.
But even though I’m much less dramatic about it now, nighttime can still be stressful, and that’s why I’m super grateful for my Owlet. It’s a little sock monitor that you put on your baby’s foot that checks their oxygen levels and heart rate and is designed to alert you if their levels drop out of range. What I would have given for one of these with my first two babies!
The monitor connects to an app on your phone and has a base station you can put on your night stand that is designed to sound an alarm if the levels drop, and I love being able to check on San from the app while he’s sleeping without going into his room and risking waking him up. Plus I’ve been super motivated to brush up on my infant CPR skills since even though I hope to never hear that alarm, at least I’ll know what to do if it ever does go off.
Especially if you’re a first time mom, this is an invaluable tool in giving you peace of mind and hopefully keeping the zombie apocalypse feelings at bay. But even as a mom of three, it’s helped me sleep better and and feel secure about my baby’s well being.
This would also make an amazing gift for new mama’s!
Good to know! I’m not going to be a mom anytime soon, but since I’d like to be one someday it’s great to take notes from other moms.
Shae @ Current Habits
I’m pretty sure the $20 off doesn’t expire, so check back when you’re having a baby if you want to snag one! xx
Where is that cute little outfit from? Dying – love!
it’s from an etsy shop called Londin Lux 🙂 xx
This Zombie-Apocalypse Feeling is what made us co-sleep, though that was not the plan. In fact he basically slept on our chest for two months. But that was because he would not fall asleep otherwise. And one day they grow up and you forget all about it.
Glad I’m not alone in that feeling! And I totally get it — I co-slept with Fos for most of his first year!
And thank goodness for memory loss, otherwise we would never have more children, right? 😉
I really struggle to get on board with companies that rely on fearmongering to sell products.
I absolutely don’t think they rely on fear-mongering. I don’t know if you’re a parent or not, but that stress of keeping a newborn alive and healthy is so real and intense, especially as a first time parent, that products like this are an blessing and sanity saver.
Honestly, it would probably make me more anxious, waiting for the alarm to go off.
I say they rely on fear-mongering because the video that launches on their website starts with three parents telling their story of how their child might have died if not for Owlet.
As I scrolled through the top pics, I thought, “wow, his PJs match the owlet that she posted about a couple of weeks ago…” and then I get to the post itself and realized that was probably on purpose. So sweet!
Ha, it wasn’t even intentional! He was already wearing this when I decided to take pictures. A happy coincidence.