My daughter started sleeping through the night when she was a few weeks old. She is one of those rare, trick babies you only read about. When she was 8 weeks old, we moved her into a crib in her bedroom. Although we share a wall and our bed is literally seven steps to hers, it seemed too far away.
Early one morning, when I was up staring at the baby monitor, I started reading an article about a device called the Snuza. According to the website, the Snuza “allows you to monitor your child’s breathing and movement for vibrations and apnea”. There are lights indicating frequency of movement, vibrations if movement is not detected, and an alarm if too much time has passed without any movement. GENIUS, I thought and immediately woke up my sleeping husband. We read the reviews together and almost cried about how it saved babies lives who stopped breathing! It can stop SIDS! I found a solution so I can sleep better without obsessing over the monitor! YES!
We bought the Snuza, and I did sleep better for a few weeks. That was until my daughter started actively rolling over and moving around in her crib. She seemed to have her mama’s inability to sleep still and kicked her legs out all over the place. The first night I heard the alarm, my husband and I both woke with a start. We sprinted into her room, our hearts pounding. Expecting to see an unresponsive child in her big girl crib, we saw our daughter, staring up at us, seemingly confused by this sound coming from her diaper. We checked her breathing, reset the Snuza, and put her back into her bed. Did she stop breathing? False alarm? HOW CAN I SLEEP NOW!?
I didn’t sleep any more that night. I kept watching the monitor waiting to see if the alarm would go off again. It didn’t. The next night, I decided to be an even bigger stalker and watch my daughter sleep. I saw the colors change from green to yellow with each inhale. Green light, relief. Yellow light, WHY ISN’T SHE BREATHING NORMALLY!? My husband ushered me to bed, but I watched the monitor like a hawk that night. I saw her moving around a lot, and sure enough, the beeping alarm woke me up. Again, we hurried into her room to find her looking dazed and confused by the noise.
This became a pattern. We kept putting our sleepy baby in her crib and the three of us would startle awake hearing the alarm. I couldn’t leave the monitor for one split second because I needed to hear she was okay. I couldn’t sleep at night because I didn’t want to sleep through the alarm. I fit the new mom role perfectly walking around like a sleep deprived zombie during the day. “Rough night?” people would ask. Only for me, not for my rockstar sleeping baby.
I remember one night, when my active baby got 2 or 3 alarms in a 10 hour period, I asked my parents their advice. They responded with a simple “ummm perhaps you should just stop using it like we did in the old days?” I talked about it with my husband that was very relieved someone else suggested we stop using it. That night, without fear of the alarm or worry about light color, I slept so deeply.
If the Snuza works for you to relieve your anxiety, that is great. But for me, I realized it was causing mine.
Leah Moser 