In addition to knowing that the county, or a judge, could remove Jo Jo from my life forever, as a baby loss mom I also continuously worry about death. SIDS, now that this baby is already born and alive. I have read many blogs by moms who lost their babies as newborns, or as 14-week-olds, or even later. They woke up and checked on their baby, or the baby went down for a nap at daycare, and 20 minutes later they checked again and the baby was gone. There is also a foster mom who blogs that got twin newborns placed with her, one of whom died the very next day, with lots of people in the room not noticing he wasn’t breathing until too late.
Not gonna happen to me! I just got the AngelCare motion sensor monitor, and I think I’m going to sleep better tonight than I have in a while. I won’t need to put Jo Jo in the (railed) co-sleeper just so I can put my hand on her moving chest. I can turn on the ticking noise that indicates her every breath, and I can drift into a deep slumber knowing that a very annoying alarm will sound if she lies still without breathing for 20 seconds.
I tested the monitor with my hand before using it with her. Even holding as perfectly still as I was able, it still detected every muscle movement through the mattress pad in the bassinet. When I removed my hand, the alarm sounded after 20 seconds.
Some people have acted like I’m way high-strung for using this device. But peace-of-mind is truly hard to buy… and yet here it is. I’m happy.
Mother of All Things 
worth every damn penny, imo!
We planned on getting these with the girls! I read reviews of false alarms (which I’m ok with!!). Let me know how they go!
If it gives you peace of mind, then it’s totally worth it.
You can turn the sensitivity up if false alarms happen. My sensitivity is almost 0, and it works without a problem. I think “false alarms” could also be attributed to the fact that when an infant is apneic, they often start to breathe again on their own when their rising CO2 triggers the respiratory center of the brain, OR the light and noise coming from the parents brings the infant to a level of consciousness where the brain is now reminded to wake up and breathe. So was it a false alarm? It’s not supposed to tell you when the baby is DEAD, just warn you that the baby is having an apneic spell so that you can rouse the baby.
Completely worth it, if you ask me. I didn’t even know this EXISTED. I’m off to Google and see if I can buy it I am so damn paranoid about losing Evelyn somehow…I check to make sure she’s alive all the time, even during little cat naps. Sounds like this will give you great peace of mind.
I wish they had this when my daughter was a baby (or that I knew about it). She’s 16 now, but I remember being so insanely worried about SIDS, and checking on her all the time until she was about 2. Worth every penny!
This monitor is a dream come true! To squash false alarms make sure you place the wood under the mattress in the crib to level it all out.
That monitor will seriously help you sleep. We had one alarm go off once- my son was fine but I am so thankful we got the warning.