Angelcare Luv

Claire is napping in her carseat right now. She's congested and the elevation is what she needs to keep her snoozing. That carseat also gave everyone in the house 9+ hours of sleep last night (well, except me because I kept waking in anticipation of a feeding that never happened).

But when she's in her crib... which I hope is tonight... she's now on two Angelcare sensor pads. That feels liberating.

I sort of felt like a kid on Christmas when that box arrived on Friday.

Most parents aren't this neurotic. Most parents don't delight in the fact that their child is being monitored for every single breath. Most parents would find that unnecessary and overboard.

I find it imperative.

With Benjamin, we used the single sensor pad, followed all of the instructions, used 1/4" plywood underneath, centered and turned the sensitivity to its lowest setting of 5. False alarms galore. Most he slept through, but still frustrating for us to be woken from sleep because he burrowed into the cracks of his crib, not to mention terrifying! He likes to cuddle, that kid, and the crib bars were a favorite location to sleep near. I hated the alarms but figured I'd rather be awakened to that than to awaken to losing my son. Extreme, maybe. But the mind of a mom who lost her baby is neither rational nor to be tamed. Yes, most children sleep every single night and wake in the morning. I'm aware.

With Claire, we started getting false alarms and they were waking her and us. As if I need another reason to get less sleep! My friend Danielle was over (whose 4-year old is also Angelcare monitored and has been so vital to them--an alarm indicated he was seizing once) and Claire was napping in her crib. I saw on Dropcam she was laying on her back, but not in the exact center. False alarm for no reason. My digital monitors had both stopped accurately displaying the icons AND the temperature in the nursery also. At that point, I whipped out my instruction manual and called the number. I left a message.

I got a call back within the hour (it was after 6pm!). The woman told me she would happily replace my shoddy digital parent units (which were working to alarm and detect movement, but unable to read the digital part). I also complained that the single sensor pad just wasn't working. She recommended I flip the mattress often as not to allow the sensor pad to create an impression in the mattress (wise!) and interrupted me mid-sentence to tell me it would cost me $28 to upgrade to two sensor pads. Shipped.

What the what? That's it? Yes. That's it. It arrived Friday and she was sleeping soundly without any false alarms (well, for 4-6 hours since she's still waking way too often for milk) that evening. I only regret not upgrading sooner.

The sweet, sweet sound of silence and reassurance, brought to you by the company that just earned my lifetime loyalty and then some.