Once in awhile you come across a new product that is life changing and you want to shout about it from the rooftops, “HELLO HELLO LOOK AT THIS!”, and the new Owlet Monitor is one of those goodies, in a major way. In short, it is a smart sock for your baby, which sends an alert to a base station, as well as your mobile phone, if your infant’s heart rate is out of the ordinary or if their oxygen level dips too low. The technology is actually nothing new, it’s that same idea behind that thing that clips onto your finger when you are in the hospital, but made in a tiny (adorable) cordless sock for babies and for everyday use at home.

I wish we had the sock from the very beginning, as I don’t know how many hours we spent obsessively staring at the video monitor to check for breathing and around 6 months, before Archer was really able to roll over easily (with his giant head), he started getting into the habit of falling asleep literally face planted right into the mattress. It drove us crazy! It used to feel like A LOT of work getting this kiddo to nap so the last thing we wanted to do was go in and wake him up. More often than not, we would end up heading in there and just pray he wouldn’t wake up as we turned his head to the side or flipped him. We had about a 50/50 success rate, which just added to the frustration. And if that wasn’t enough, around the same age, we figured he was old enough to give a “lovie” so we introduced him to a small knitted blanket that my mom made and he loved it. We were so happy he attached himself to it so quickly and it really did seem to help him sleep better. BUT then… he began to completely wrap it around his head like tiny turban, covering his entire face. WHY ARE BABIES SO WEIRD?! Again, we would wake up a million times a night checking to see if he had his face covered and sometimes moving the blanket aside. We ended up getting my mom to knit an even tinier blanket (about the size of a washcloth) so there was no longer a possible wrapping face situation, but we never stopped obsessing.

AND THEN, along came Owlet and with it, better sleep for us. Now, I know I will be alerted if his blankie is hindering his breathing, or if that face-plant actually needs to be rectified or not. Really, I am excited technology like this exists and I am so happy to have this platform to be able to pass it along. It is something that has given me a little more peace of mind, a lot less hours spent obsessing and staring at a video monitor (of course I still do here and there but only to relish in the adorable-ness not to look for the rise and fall of a tiny chest), and an extra watchful eye, because babies do weird things and new mamas (and papas) tend to worry.

Owlet is offering SSS readers $10 off a monitor by clicking here – the price is automatically updated to reflect the promotion.

Images by Sarah Sherman Samuel // Archer’s pajamas from Old Navy