Owlet Baby Monitor

I think every mom can relate to the paranoia that comes with bringing a baby home, especially in regards to sleep.  I can't count the amount of times that I'd lean over while Addilyn was sleeping and put my hand on her chest to make sure it was moving.  Then poke her because I couldn't feel it enough.  Only to wake her up from her short stretch of sleep.  When Addilyn was two months old I actually bought a sensor pad monitor to alert me if she stopped breathing.  It gave me a peace of mind and definitely allowed me to sleep better.  But I didn't love that it could only be used on a flat surface and took a lot of preparation if I wanted to move it.  It also went off a few times when she'd move to the bottom of the crib or if she was in a deep enough sleep it didn't pick it up.  I only wish I had had this monitor with her.  I was so excited when we got our Owlet Care baby monitor. 

When Isaac was born he had some breathing issues that we discovered the second day.  He was put in the NICU and they monitored his oxygen levels and heart rate.  It freaked me out because I hadn't even noticed before they put him there that he was having a hard time breathing, so you can imagine I was extra nervous whenever he made weird noises or would sleep for any length of time.

The Owlet monitor is is a smart sock that monitors both of those things.  Baby's oxygen level and heart rate, and allows you to monitor them on your phone.  The smart sock uses hosptial technology (pulse oximetry) and is designed to alert you if your baby's heart rate is too low or too high, or if baby's oxygen level gets too low.

The monitor is hooked up to your home wifi, so you can use the app on your phone to check your baby's levels at any time.  If you bring your monitor with you (like I will on vacation) and there is no wifi, you can still use the monitor and it will still alert you if there are any problems, you just can't see the readings through the app.

There are three different alerts you can get from the monitor.  

Yellow means the monitor can't get a good reading.  This has only happened one time in the month I've used it, and I'm not sure what the problem was.  I had Isaac in a onesie (usually he's in footie pjs) under his swaddle and I'm guessing when he was moving around the sock shifted.  

Blue means the monitor has disconnected from the base station.  This could be because the base station is too far from the sock.  This happened once when I brought Isaac out of the room without turning off the monitor.  It could also happen if you are feeding them during the night and your body is blocking the sensor. 

Red means the baby's oxygen level is too low or heart rate too low or too high.  Obviously you wouldn't rely solely on the alarm, as you would first check your baby and make sure they are breathing normally and look okay.  I got a red alarm once.  I had just finished nursing Isaac and was burping him on my shoulder.  The alarm went off and it's loud and off course completely shot my heart rate up.  I was very awake before and Isaac was breathing fine.  I'm not sure if the sock wasn't on right or if it couldn't get a good reading, but I've made sure to turn the monitor off when I'm feeding him from now on, as I know now that can give false readings. 

My thoughts so far? 

I love it.  I feel like there are certain phases when my anxiety is extra high when it comes to my babies and their sleep.  The first few months when they are so new and tiny, whenever they get sick when they start rolling over and sleeping on their stomachs, and then when they sleep all night. (Hopefully Isaac will get the hang of that one sooner than Addilyn!)

I love that I can use it when he's in the rock n play, the cosleeper or crib and that it's easy to put on.

I love how easy it is to access it from my phone and that I can check on his levels while he's asleep in the other room and I'm on the couch.

The only thing I haven't loved about it is that I've had issues with the app in terms of wifi connection. I'm not sure if it's just our connection, but there's been quite a few times I open it to check and it says I'm disconnected.  Most of the times I can just close the app and try again in a minute, but once in awhile I have to unplug the base station and plug it in again.  Not a huge deal at all, but it'd be nice to not do that! (This doesn't mean the monitor isn't working.  It's still designed to alert me from the base station if his oxygen level or heart rate fall out of range.  Just that I can't see the readings on my phone.)

I've partnered with Owlet to offer you a special promo of $20 off your purchase.  I know it is expensive and it's easy to say coming from me since I got to try it out for free.  But from someone who spent a lot of money on a breathing monitor that I didn't love nearly as much when Addilyn was a baby, I'd buy this one if I didn't have it.  Use this link to check out and get $20 off! .