Thank you, Owlet Care, for sponsoring this post, Restful Nights and Reassurance. I was selected for this opportunity by Owlet Care; the content and opinions expressed here are all my own. This post is part of Owlet's A Night in the Life series, where real parents share their Owlet experience. Click here to view more posts in this popular series.
When we first found out that we were pregnant with baby Ollie, we were very nervous about his wellbeing. After losing a baby months prior, anything that looked abnormal on a sonogram quickly meant to us that we were going to loss him as well. From typical kidney monitoring to a disappearing brain mass, our pregnancy turn us into a couple of worrywarts.
I would have never thought that I would have been the mom with a baby breathing monitor. My primary question while pregnant was "what did I actually need?". I have never wanted to label myself as a minimalist parent; however, while we were preparing for the newest family addition, I had a basic rule. If our baby was not going to use it for more than a couple of months and it costs over $50, we probably did not need it. This really required me to do my research and has allowed our living room not to look like a Babies 'R Us aisle.
Jump forward to bringing our little guy home after a few rough days in the hospital; we could not wait to get a good night's sleep. I had heard of this new monitor on Instagram and the worrier in me had the Owlet on order to see what it was all about. It was on its way to our home, but it had yet to arrive for night one with a newborn. Settling into his bedside bassinet, I spent the majority of the first two nights a complete nervous wreck. Each sigh, squeak, and twitch woke me up in a panic and I ended up sitting there studying his chest to ensure it was moving up and down. Our worrisome instincts had moved from pregnancy to parenthood, and we quickly realized that this baby-in-the-bedroom thing was not sustainable for any of us.
I was completely overjoyed on day three of baby Ollie being home to see the mailman carrying the Owlet Monitor to my doorstep. Knowing that this little device was going to monitor Ollie's breathing and alert us if there was any issues allowed us to transition to nursery crib on night three!
Girlfriends of mine were floored by our decision, but we honestly could not have done it without our Owlet. It has been so reassuring to me that the same hospital technology is present in our nursery and helping us watch over our baby boy. Many of those same noisy sleeping patterns that most babies have do not wake up anymore in the middle of the night. We can also lay in the comfort of our bed and check on his vitals without disturbing him or risking waking him up.
As these weeks have turned into months of being a new mom, we have struggled with a defective mattress and a very active sleeper. Both of these things have caused Ollie to wake up on his stomach, face down, and sometimes even pinned in-between the mattress and crib side. Thankful with these incidents, we have never had any red alerts where he has stopped breathing; however, without our Owlet, he would have never stayed in his crib. These moments have only heightened my worry for our baby boy, but knowing that there is an extra lay of monitoring has allowed us to continue to sleep more peacefully as time continues.
I would still consider myself a fairly "minimalistic" parent, not really feeling like we need a whole lot of stuff in our home to keep baby Ollie happy and healthy; however, the Owlet is top on my list of recommendations. It has truly allowed us to have more restful nights and reassurance that our little one is breathing easy. I could not imagine our first-time parent experience without it.
