Baby Product Rant and Rave - mostly RAVE

I am paranoid and not afraid to admit it. I have always been fearful of SIDS. I breathed a sigh of relief when AJ hit the ripe old age of one -- the time when children are no longer considered at risk of dying from SIDS. A friend of ours lost a nephew to SIDS several years ago and his story was just heartbreaking. Though the risk may be small, I know that tragedies happen and I know that children die, so if there's something I can do to protect my family, I will do it.

Last fall I purchased an Angelcare Monitor off craigslist. I love it. It gives me such peace of mind. I am always worrying about whether little SPY is breathing, and although I loved having him sleep near me in the pack n play in our room (or snuggling in bed on my pillow), I feel so much better about having him in his crib on this monitor. The way it works is that you place a square sensor pad under your crib mattress. The sensor pad detects movement from your baby's body, including breathing movement. When it does not detect any movement for 20 seconds, an alarm sounds. The sensor pad is connected to a traditional sound monitor, so you can hear both your baby's sounds and the alarm, should it go off.

The first two nights we used the Angelcare monitor, we had several false alarms. While I knew in my mind they must be false alarms, I couldn't believe how scared I was to hear that constant (loud) beeping. It was very easy to adjust the sensitivity and since then we have had no problems, even with SPY learning how to roll his way to one end of the crib.

The "rant" part of this post is that the reception on the parent's unit is terrible. I have to store it upsidedown in my nightstand drawer and I had to get rid of my alarm clock just to reduce the static enough to sleep through it. BUT that is not a problem given the peace of mind I have. I love feeling like I can get a good night's sleep or play with AJ in the yard and not have to worry about my little guy. I feel so confident that this monitor will let me know if there's a problem.

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