Thursday, May 13, 2010

Choices

As parents we make choices. Well, one choide I've made is akin to infanticide to the pearl-clutchers of the world. Henry takes all his naps on his tummy. He sleeps SO well, and his tummy troubles are helped by this position. Go ahead, clutch your pearls and gasp at my reckless parenting. I might as well be riding seatbelt-less in my Buick with my toddler on my lap and my infant in a box on the seat beside me.

Honestly, part of me feels like someone is going to call the cops on me because I'm endangering him. Well, here's the rub- our entire generation slept on our stomachs and most of us survived to make adorable little babies of our own. I know stomach sleeping doesn't cause SIDS, but it is a risk factor, and that makes even reckless-me nervous. So we always put him to sleep on his back at night because we couldn't check on him every 5 min like we can when he's napping.

Last night we put him down on his tummy for his first cycle at 9pm (because he usually sleeps for 2.5-3 hours at a time) so when we're ready for bed he's usually ready for a quick meal and quickly to go back to sleep (get it.... back to sleep?) Last night he slept from 9pm-3:40am. It was BEAUTIFUL. And then the guilt rolled in.

So when I discovered this I was elated- Our problem is solved! This is exactly the type of product that I would have made fun of. "Paranoid parents who need to know that the baby is moving, making noise and what the temperature the room is?! Seriously, they need to chilax!" Well my rebellious self will be using the (base version of) this monitor to tummy-sleep my child for 6 blissful hours at a time, thank you very much.

6 comments:

Kate said...

You know we got ours because Field was being paranoid but it really did make me feel ok once we made the switch to putting Liam on his stomach.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you this when we were talking earlier. When we were talking to our pediatrician about Liam's issues with reflux I asked about putting him on a slant. The dr said that the research shows that the best sleeping position for digestive issues is on a slant ob their tummy even though that goes against the other recommendations. He wasn't going to come out and tell us to put Liam down on his tummy but he was clearly telling us it was ok.

Husband said...

Hmmm, interesting. Henry's problems seem to be gas related, but the belly sleeping really seems to help him sleep better. That kid sounds like a fog horn, even in his sleep.

Mostly it is paranoid me that is to blame with the monitor :-D

The Crivella Family said...

Just be careful with that monitor, my SIL got it and the alarm went off all night long! She returned it and got a video instead.

Anonymous said...

Hey Em!

To bad I didn't know you were looking to get that...I have one and trying to get rid of it now. Was great for the first few weeks but ones she started rolling just a little...it was DONE! Every time she moved it would go off...and drive me crazy! Then we ended up getting the video one too. xoxo
Kristin

Emily said...

And a HUGE thank you to Kate for offering to loan us her monitor and to Kristin for giving us hers!!

It seems serendipitous that my parents are going to NYC this coming week to see a show, now they can meet up with my cuz!

Sweet!

Brenna said...

I'm pretty sure that if we had placed Amedeo down on his belly, he would have slept better. Since he is my first, I couldn't do what you did. I realize now that getting good sleep is so important for growth and development. Who knows what I'll be thinking when/if we have another baby? It's an interesting debate!