October 13, 2009

Baby Monitors: Whatcha Gonna Do?


Peace of mind, some say.

I've been hearing and reading a lot about new mothers who monitor their babies all night. At the slightest beep they're up and running to check out what's wrong.

Personally, I wouldn't be able to live like that. We were given a monitor at our baby shower and haven't used it. I figure, if something truly dramatic were going on I'd hear it down the hall.

The morbid thing I have to wonder is, what would the average parent do if they found their lifeless baby in the crib? -A scary image, I know. I remember one time my son was in such a deep sleep that he didn't move a muscle when I caressed his face during a nap. I poked his belly and I still got nothing. Finally I yelled his name and whisked him into my arms, only to have him stare back at me like I was crazy. I was all ready to jump into my basic resuscitation skills, though it felt extremely different when the 'patient' is your own child.

I highly recommend that parents and caregivers be comfortable with basic CPR. All the nursery gadgets in the world would be useless without it. I know a lot of hospitals offer community courses for certification. If you don't have time for that, check out these links (I have to say that the YouTube stuff isn't official, but it's better than nothing):
Of course I hope and pray you'll never have to use this information.

3 comments:

Salem said...

Great post. And I am so with you on the baby monitors. We used ours with Ryder...but haven't touched it this time. Let's just say I am getting much more rest this time around.

Unknown said...

Wow... what a great post. How scary that must have been for you.

I used a baby monitor with Trinity, but the freaky thing was ~ I always woke up "a split second" before she made a noise. I've heard that from alot of moms as well... it's weird.
I'm like you, I always figured I would wake up on my own if something happened, and I always did. I still do... probably will till she moves out! LOL

Alex said...

I must be pretty morbid as well because I have thought often about what I would do if I went in and found Phoenix lifeless....Let's just tears usually follow those thoughts.

I actually didn't get a baby monitor. When he was very tiny he always napped wherever I was and slept in our room until he was 6 months old.

And now he's certainly loud enough that I hear him!