Our baby, Daenerys, was born two months premature. Maybe it’s because of that, or because I’m older now than I was when I had my first two offspring, and better understand the fragility of life, but for the first four months of her life – well technically, since she came home from NICU after a 6 and a half week stay – I couldn’t sleep. I was constantly checking to make sure Daenerys was breathing. I’d watch her sleep, hold her hand, touch her belly… anything, to ensure she wasn’t going to die while I slept. Then one day, I happened upon an article talking about baby movement monitors. I began to obsess about them, reading reviews, asking for advice on them from my peers, and in those wee hours when I couldn’t sleep for fear that something would happen and I’d wake up to the worst thing a parent can possibly imagine, I realized I had to have one.
We ordered the Snuza online for $100. My husband was shocked at the price tag. I didn’t care. And when I put it to him as, “What’s $100 if we have the chance to save our daughter’s life if she stops breathing while we are sleeping?” the price tag didn’t seem to matter as much (although, he still points out it’s only a few dollars worth of parts, and the company that makes it is taking advantage of parents’ fear by jacking the price up.)
The first thing we did when we got the Snuza was turn it on and set it on a table. After 20 seconds of no movement detected, it began to alarm. Yay! It works! That night, we clipped it to Daenerys’ diaper. I’d read that the Snuza doesn’t work well with cloth diapers (which is what we use when we’re at home), so we diapered Daenerys in a disposable. I slept better than I had since Daenerys was born (when I wasn’t waking to nurse her.) A couple nights later, my mate forgot about the disposable diaper and put a cloth diaper on her for bedtime. Twice that night, the Snuza didn’t sense movement, and alarmed. It woke both my husband and I up – which was wonderful, really, as now we knew it worked to rouse us.
Now sticking that little piece of equipment on Daenerys right before bedtime is a part of our routine. And I am convinced it is the best $100 I ever spent.
