Thursday, June 5, 2008

Thursday, June 5, 2008 - Update

Well, they're coming to take it all away. . .the oxygen and the monitor. Is it silly to still have her wear the monitor at night? Probably. Is it a pain? Yes. But, we do it. Why? Well, for three reasons really. She sleeps on her tummy. Sometimes I wonder why I let her sleep on her tummy. However, when you think about all of the kangaroo care that we did with her in the NICU and how I hold her in the recliner. . .it makes sense. Her tummy is snuggled up against me and that's what she likes. Plus, I think some babies are tummy sleepers and some are back sleepers. The second reason we have her wear the monitor is because she has been known to throw up in her crib. The last time, we found dried vomit all around her and she never even woke us up. And, well. . .it's reassuring to know that if there was a problem, it would beep and wake us up. I worry a lot. . I was an anxious person before all of this. Now, I'm even worse. I guess my reasons weren't valid enough, however, to keep the monitor. It's probably a blessing because all of us are sick of the thing. We were going to discontinue it as soon as she started rolling over. Then, I could put her on her back and it would be her choice as to how she wanted to sleep. She's almost there and I would think that by almost 6 months adjusted, the fear of SIDS is almost passed. Any words of advice from others who have survived the first few nights without a monitor?

5 comments:

Juliette said...

I think the first few nights Ryan was without his monitor I woke up 3 or 4 times to check on him. After a few nights realizing that he was okay I started sleeping more and worrying less. When Olivia starts to roll over I'm sure that will help. Like you said, she can choose to sleep on her front or back. When Ryan started rolling over there was no stopping him from sleeping on his tummy.

Julie

Melissa said...

Our child is 8 months and we still sleep with a monitor... we just turn it down so every little hick up wont wake us up, but if she was to really cry or something like that happened we would hear it. It has been nice having her be old enough to not worry about SIDs as much or throwing up in her sleep. I alwyas worried about that

Anonymous said...

It IS very scary to go without the monitor. Just think... ever since Olivia has been born, she's been monitored. So, it's very normal for that to be a security blanket for you. I cried the first night we put our son to be without the monitor. I woke up a few nights in a row more than usual to check on him and gradually I became more used to it. My husband would always say that if God brought our baby this far, He would watch over him now too. How'd the first night go? We're thinking of you-- it is a hard transition! I would have kept the monitor on him until he was 16 if the company would have let me :-)
Love,
Neva

Kellars Mommy said...

Ok so when we had to give up Kellars monitor I invested in a angel care monitor, it goes underneath their mattress and if it doesn't detect movement (it's very sensitive and it picks up their breathing movements ) it will alarm. It made me feel at ease but yes like the others I did wake up often the first few nights.

Casey's trio said...

Two of our girls had apnea monitors and it was hard to shake the security of it. All of ours were tummy sleepers too! I've heard ggod thing about the angelcare monitors if you still want that reassurance.