SNUZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the positioner thingy worked ok, but she still didn't like it as much as sleeping on her tummy. It still took a long time for her to fall asleep, with me going in there every few minutes to put her pacifier back in (yes, I know you're supposedly not supposed to do that, but the poor thing can't do it herself and she can't yet get her fingers in her mouth... besides, once she's asleep, I can sleep).

My wonderful brother suggested that I get a Snuza. It's a tiny monitor that you put on the baby's diaper and it senses the movements of their bellies when they breathe. If they stop breathing (or there is no movement sensed) for 15 seconds, it will vibrate to rouse the baby, and if another 5 seconds goes by without movement (20 seconds total) it will sound a really loud alarm.

I ordered it Sunday. I continued to put her on her side at night until I got it. It was really hard to do and took some will power, but I figured a few more nights of side-sleeping was infinitely worth the risk that she might succumb to SIDS a day or two before I got the Snuza. I am SO GLAD I DID!!!

I got the Snuza yesterday (I did pay the outrageous $20 to have it overnighted) and was so excited that I might get a good nights sleep. I just keep remembering the 9 full hours she slept the first night she was on her tummy. And the darn thing didn't work. The battery was completely dead. Not a bit of juice in it. I was so disappointed and almost started crying because to send the battery back and then wait for another one would take days!! I called the company, BabyLove, and told them what happened. Well, apparently, they aren't affiliated with Amazon, which is who I ordered the Snuza through, and someone else was using the BabyLove name. Great. Megan just got ripped off again. So I submitted an email through Amazon and called RadioShack to see if they sold the battery. They did, and I went to get it, even though it cost another $20.

Yesterday was my first day back at work and my sister Maria watched her. I got to Maria's at 7:30 so I could get to work at 8. Ellen started crying when we got there and I just couldn't leave while she was crying. I know she's gonna cry sometimes throughout the day when I'm not there, and that's ok, but it's different to walk out the door for the first day back at work leaving your baby screaming behind you. I tried to nurse her but she wouldn't have it. We finally got her asleep by 8:30 and I left for work.

She woke up a few minutes after I left and Maria fed her and put her back down. She slept for 3 hours. She woke up, ate, played, and then slept for another 2.5 hours and woke up right before I got there. What a great first day!! I tried to nurse her right away, but she was fussy and wouldn't take much. When we got home, she was so sleepy, so I put her down. She slept for a few minutes before she woke up hungry. I think either my milk production was down yesterday (stress from work maybe?? Extra fatigue from getting up extra early??) or she's going through a growth spurt. She kept nursing and nursing last night and I don't think she was getting much.

But at any rate, about 8 I put the now-working Snuza on her diaper and put her down to bed. She fell right to sleep - I didn't have to go in several times to reinsert her pacifier or to readjust her so she'd be more comfortable. There was no whimpering or grunting or struggling... just peaceful slumber. I knew she wouldn't sleep much though because she had been nursing so much and I knew she'd probably be up for an extra feeding.

The Snuza is great. It blinks green with every movement. So when she settles down and her only movement is breathing, you can see a little green flash with every breath. How reassuring!! For the first time I didn't feel like I had to obsessively check on her because if I didn't hear her crying or whimpering, and I didn't hear the alarm, then everything was fine!! What relief! As predicted, she woke up at 11:30 (usually she sleeps from 8-ish til 1:30-2:30) and I fed her and put her back down. She went right back to sleep, Snuza blinking reassuringly.

At 2:30 she woke up again, and this is when I became even more eternally grateful for the Snuza. The light was not blinking green, it was blinking RED!! I couldn't believe it! When the Snuza has to vibrate to rouse the baby, but the baby responds so there's no alarm, the little green light turns red to let you know it happened. If it happens three times, it will also start beeping at you to let you know it has happened so many times. So she stopped breathing for 15 seconds once, or possibly twice, in that three hour period!! I was SO relieved that I hadn't put her on her tummy at night before I got the Snuza, and infinitely more glad that I got the Snuza at all!! It has a response period of 15 seconds... this is way better than I could ever hope to accomplish on my own unless I sat there and watched her breathe for every second of every sleep. And even though this had happened, I was still able to peacefully go back to sleep because I knew that even if I were awake, I couldn't do a better job of keeping her breathing than the Snuza. And if she stopped again for 20 seconds, it would wake me up.

Now I know it could have been that the Snuza lost contact with her belly and wasn't sensing movement but when it vibrated she moved and got it back in contact with her skin, but what if that's not what happened?? The Snuza might have saved her life last night!!!! I just know she will never sleep without it again!!