A Little Scare

I'm a bit of a paranoid mommy today.  I deserve to be.  I got the wind knocked out of me last night.

Allow me back up a few months...

While I was pregnant with 'Munchkin', I registered for things I needed, which wasn't much.  I kept everything from when 'The Boy' was a baby and didn't need anything but clothes, crib linens, burp cloths (and did we need them) and a monitor.  Everything else would just be passed down.  I remember having a conversation with 'The Hubs' about us not needing a new monitor.  We could just use the same one because, I felt, 'The Boy' was old enough not to have one anymore.  I lost and we registered for a monitor that we received as a shower gift.

A few weeks before 'Munchkin' arrived, I felt we had everything we needed until I saw a review on this...

...the Angelcare monitor. 

That sensor pad goes under the crib mattress and detects movement from baby's breathing.  If it does not detect movement for 15 seconds, and alarm sounds.  I read so many reviews about this monitor and stories about how it saved many baby's lives.  I was sold!  Too bad it cost $140.  It was going to take some serious convincing to get 'The Hubs' to allow me to spend that much on a baby monitor when the monitor we already had (and was the exact model as 'The Boy's') only cost $25.  I was wrong.  As soon as he heard the stories I had read, he told me to get it.  So off to Babies 'R' Us I went.

Almost three months later, and countless thoughts of "I hope I never hear that alarm", my biggest fear (sort of) came true.  Last night, around 2 a.m., I heard a beep that I thought was the smoke alarm telling me to change its battery.  Less than 2 seconds later, the beeps came louder and more rapid.  I jumped out of bed, hit 'The Hubs' and yelled, "Get up!  Chelsea's not breathing!"  We were both so out of it because we were fast asleep but, we ran like the wind.

It took us less than 10 seconds to get to her room.  It felt like five minutes.  So many thoughts were going through my head.  I was trying to breath and calm myself down so that I could give her CPR correctly if we needed too.  I didn't want anything worse to happen because I was hysterical.  'The Hubs' said he was still asleep when we were running to her room.  He kept asking "what" over and over.  I kept praying, "God, let her be okay".

Now, we are second time parents and not much phases us with this one.  We are much slower to respond to baby cries or wipe spit up off of her mouth.  In our defense, we never had a monitor like this when 'The Boy' was a baby so we were pretty quick to assume the worst.

When we got in the room, 'The Hubs' picked her up right away.  I turned on the lights and turned the alarm off.  We screamed her name.  I asked "is she breathing?"  She slowly blinked her eyes open, pouted and started wailing.  She was fine.  False alarm.

I am so glad that we have this monitor.  We could have gone into her room and found our worst nightmare.  But, had that been the case, we would have been able to start attempting to revive her right away.  Thankfully, she had just rolled out of range of the sensor.  We unplugged everything, checked it twice and got her back to sleep.  I pray that I never hear that alarm again.

Mommy friends, if you don't have this monitor, I highly recommend getting it.  It is worth every penny!  I would forgo outfits and hair bows and play mats if it meant I could afford to buy this.  I can't imagine any worse feeling than finding our baby unresponsive and being too late to do anything about it. 

I have been checking on 'Munchkin's' breathing throughout every nap today.  I have no idea how I will be able to sleep tonight but, knowing that my Angelcare monitor works will probably make it much easier.