It Could Have Made A Difference…

As a first time mum I think the worry set in from the moment she breathed her first breath. Obviously, because she was early, we had to spend a bit of time in hospital but I couldn’t wait to get home and start our new life as a little family. However, when we did get home I found I was worrying about everything – was she too hot, was she too cold, was she breathing… I’d panic if I couldn’t see or hear her breathing but this was simply because it was so  quiet. I don’t think you ever really get peace of mind do you? Even now, 16 months in, I still go in and check her twice after she has gone to bed and before I go to sleep and her baby monitor displays the temperature for me. I am of course well prepared for a lifetime of worrying but I think those early weeks were the worst… you worry about everything, especially with some of the stories you hear of SIDS as it could happen to anyone and I was so worried that was going to be us.

I would have welcomed anything back then to bring me some piece of mind – I cannot tell you the amount of times that I jumped awake in the night panicking that something was wrong purely because she had slept and not woken me. I would imagine that all parents are the same and like me would have welcomed something to bring peace of mind. Now, there are some products out on the market such as apnoea mattresses that will sound an alarm if the baby stops breathing – my mum had one of these for my brother and only used it for a short amount of time in his cot because he kept moving off of it and each time he did the alarm would sound and she swears she was getting palpitations!

Well, there is a new device coming to the market – it’s called Neebo and is the newest technology in baby monitoring. Basically it is a minute device that sits on the baby’s wrist (yup that’s how tiny it is) and monitors everything from temperature to heart rate and oxygen saturation. All this information is sent via low frequency bluetooth to the app on a parents phone where the information can all be read and monitored… it’s amazing. Now, one of my first thoughts was “Won’t the bluetooth/wifi damage my baby in some way?!” Nope, get this…. It’s radiation free! You can look back at results or track them in real time and this also acts as a sound monitor for your baby too so you can hear them if they wake and you have the option to filter out the background noise or listen to other noises happening around your baby!

Honestly, I think if I had seen one of these devices when I had been buying everything for Alyssa I would have bought one without hesitation. There are so many worries when you have children some of them for good reasons and some of them just because this is a new situation that we have little control over but nonetheless I am not sure that I would put any price on my own piece of mind and the safety of my daughter. Neebo is being released in April 2017 but can be pre-ordered now from their website where you can also find out lots more information about the product and probably answer any other questions you might have.

For me I think this new product would have been such a lifesaver – Alyssa almost died once from choking and it was a completely silent event until she was able to breathe again. What if this had been at night and no one had come to save her? It doesn’t bare thinking about, but if I do have anymore children, I will be signing myself up to grab one of these new monitors for sure.

What do you think – am I worrying too much? Maybe, but better to be safe than sorry don’t you think?

If you liked this post why not read “Sleep: We Did It Our Way!“

This is a collaborative post – all views and opinions are my own