

She asked if his sides were flaring out (right below the ribs) and if his nostrils were flaring.

However, somehow I was afraid to go to sleep that night. My son had been breathing pretty difficult that entire day but seemed happy nonetheless. My SO was out to see a stand up comedian with his parents. I followed my instincts too while a few days beforehand my GP said my then 6-week old son would be fine, that it was just a cold.Ī few days later we were getting ready to go to bed. She is still hospitalized because they are having trouble getting her O2 up to normal levels, but her bubbly disposition is back :) Bonus pic of our little girl handling the hospital like a champ Because really, why not? Other than a couple hundred dollars, what do you have to lose? It may just save your child's life. So if you can afford it, yeah I would recommend it. You still need to follow all proper procedures for putting your little one down for bed (no pillows, on their back, etc). That is why we bought it, that is how we use it. But yeah, they are tools, and that is all. I do know that they are sometimes advertised as such, which is incredibly disingenuous. They should not be used as some sort of comfort blanket that will save your child from SIDS. In conclusion, it is important to treat these products for what they are, which is a tool that measures vital stats. Oh yeah, and we are planning on switching pediatricians too after the less than stellar advice from our current one, as she probably should have been hospitalized Wednesday. It is a scary thought that I do not want to think about. If she didn't have the Owlet monitor on, she would have suffocated in her sleep due to low O2 levels. She gets hospitalized and has been in the hospital since Friday morning. They test her there and sure enough, it dips below 80% into the high 70's. After a few of these, we pack up and head to the ER. Certainly she must be okay, as our pediatrician said she would be fine. Knowing that the Owlet tends to be a bit touchy and is a commercial grade product (vs an actual medical grade product), we re-adjust it and turn it back on thinking it was a fluke. This will trigger when O2 levels dip below 80%. Within a few minutes the red-alert alarm goes off for low oxygen. So Thursday night we all get ready to go to bed. She told us to expect what we were seeing, and that it was normal. The pediatrician also said that day 5 is the worst (which Thursday would have been day 5), and after that she will start getting better.

Well, Thursday her breathing becomes a bit more labored, but this is something the pediatrician said to expect. She goes to see her pediatrician Wednesday for a follow-up appointment, and the pediatrician says that she just has to fight it out, and make sure to give her plenty of fluids and let her rest, etc. So we end up at the ER last Monday night, they diagnose her with RSV, and send us home with some basic care instructions and what to watch out for in case things get worse.

Nurses would tell us later, that in any normal season they see about 30 RSV cases, and this season they are seeing about 30 RSV cases every 2 weeks). But if any of you have been paying attention lately, you will know that this is not a normal cold/flu season (We ended up at a hospital 45 minutes away because the one we normally go to had zero rooms available, mostly RSV cases. In any normal cold/flu season, this is not too big of a deal. Last week our 4 month old daughter was diagnosed with RSV. I know that Owlet monitors and similar products are not popular here, which is why I am posting this, because I feel like our story needs to be shared. Thanks again to all of you for your kind words! Sorry if I was unable to respond to everyone. Trust your instincts people! Think rationally! Products like monitors are not a saving-grace, but an instrument that can be used to provide information that may lend to your descision making process. While my post may have come off a bit like that, the point I was making was that the monitors do have benefits, but fear and paranoia can lead to hypocondria. One other thing I feel I should mention after scrolling through all the comments this morning: I did not intend to stoke the flames of paranoia. Thanks everyone for your kind blessings :) We really appreciate it! Had to go into work today, but my SO just let me know little baby is getting released today. Edit: Whoa! This blew up much bigger than I thought it would.
