“If Only” with Owlet

Thank you to Owlet for sponsoring this post and providing product for my review. This post is based upon my experience and all opinions are my own. 

 Just the other night, my very sweet girlfriend and I were having a conversation about the fears of motherhood. She is pregnant with her first babe and is experiencing her first rush of protective panic. All of a sudden, flying seems extra stressful, all of the cars on the road seem to be reckless and each decision seems to carry the weight of the world. She asked me if what she was experiencing was normal and all I could do was offer her a sincerely heartfelt “welcome to motherhood”. 

While I tend to avoid cliches as advice, I honestly could think of no other way to explain what having a newborn is really like other than to use the expression “having a baby is like having your heart live outside of your body.” All I could promise her was that through the sleep deprivation, cluster feeds and colic there is an intense love that drowns out the underlying nervousness that every first time parent feels. What I didn’t tell her is that, for me, not only did that love barely drown out the fear but it only subsided once I felt like my son was no longer a newborn.

If I only I had an Owlet when my son was born – maybe that panic wouldn’t have had such an effect on our early days.

The Owlet is an amazingly cool vitals monitor that uses a soft sock to monitor the oxygen levels and heart rate of a baby. The sock has a tiny plastic sensor that sends information to a parent base station and that station is designed to alert you if your babe’s vitals fall outside of range. May I just take a second to say that I would have gotten so much more sleep if the Owlet existed when my babe was small. And more sleep means a happier and healthier mama, which I’m sure my husband and son would have appreciated (if you know what I mean!).

The Smart Sock that goes on baby’s foot is super soft and can fit under footie pajamas – just in case you gave birth in Maine like I did. As a bonus, the sock can be washed (as long as you remove the sensor) which will come in handy if you have a babe prone to blow outs. Cue all of the mamas-to-be reading this wondering how a baby manages to get poop on their foot. Trust me, mamas, it is possible and it will happen.

The Smart Sock comes in four sizes so that you can use the monitor until your babe is 18 months old.

I honestly couldn’t remember my own babe’s feet being so small so I did what any normal mother would do and dug out his newborn photos. Oh man, those teeny, wrinkly baby toes are delicious. 

Ok, now that the gratuitous newborn photo is out of the way, let’s discuss the Base Station. The base station monitors heart rate and oxygen level and, most importantly, is designed to alert you if your baby stops breathing (among other things – it’s designed to alert you if the sock falls off, if the signal is blocked or if the Base Station can’t find a good reading on the Sock data). 

 The base station communicates with the Smart Sock using BlueTooth Low Energy so even if you don’t have WIFI, the base and the sock will still communicate. And speaking of WIFI, Owlet also has an app that monitors baby’s stats in real time. You can log in and check on baby from anywhere, which might make leaving baby at home with a sitter for a night out easier to stomach for some parents!

And, because I know everyone is wondering, no, I am not pregnant again. Instead, I sent my Owlet to live (temporarily) in the home of a new mama who just brought her first son home from the hospital. I hope it brings her peace of mind and restful sleep when she manages to snag an hour or two. I know she’ll keep it safe for me so that I can put it to good use when we welcome a new babe to our family.

For more info on the Owlet, head to their blog! 

Thanks to Christa Rene Photography for all of the pretty photos!