Thank you, Owlet

As a new mom, I worry about everything. As someone who suffers from anxiety, I need knowledge and a sense of control. Owlet gives me just that.

What is Owlet?

Owlet baby monitor is essentially a pulse oximeter, in sock form, that tracks your baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels. It then notifies you if either fall out of the designated range.

The Owlet comes with a base station that sends you three different alerts. There’s a blue alert that indicates that the sock is disconnected from the base station, likely because it’s too far away or something is blocking the connection. There’s a yellow alert that signifies the sock is having difficulty getting a reading, maybe because it fell off. And there’s the all-concerning red alert, which alerts you to either an out of range heart rate or oxygen level. While the blue and yellow alerts play a cute baby melody, the red alerts beeps obnoxiously, allowing you to easily know the difference.

Better yet, it comes with an app for your Apple or Android devices that also receives the three types of alerts and provides near real-time data. This means I can watch my son’s vitals while he’s at daycare napping, (and I have religiously) or I can sit in bed with the app pulled up on my iPad knowing that my son’s heart rate is currently 107 and his oxygen level is 100%.

But let’s say for instance, I fall asleep or am not able to watch the app. No worries! I can simply check the Connected Care app in the morning.

Connected Care consists of graphs to see what his average oxygen, heart rate, and sleep stages were in ten minute increments. If you happen to get a red alert, Connected Care will analyze the alert with what is essentially a play-by-play. It zooms in on that piece of the graph and gives you increments that are much closer than 10 minutes apart, so you, or maybe even the pediatrician, can gain insight into what happened. Amazing!

Why do I love Owlet?

When Auggie was 4 months old, he was admitted to the hospital for a fever of unknown origin. A fever that I didn’t catch. The Owlet did.

My husband, Bryson, and I had just given Auggie a morning bath in his bathtub that was entirely too big for him. We had lotion-ed him up and placed him in pajamas because let’s be real, at four months, that’s all Auggie wore.

I stuck his Owlet on his foot and began to nurse him to sleep for his first nap. It wasn’t long and Auggie had drifted to sleep, but his heart rate was much higher than usual. I instantly knew something was wrong, but Auggie had shown no symptoms. I asked Bryson to bring me the thermometer. Sure enough, it read 101.

I began to, quite literally, crap my pants. This was Auggie’s first fever, and I didn’t even catch it. How on earth was I responsible for another human life?

Bryson convinced me to wait to rush him off to the hospital until the fever reached 102, as directed by the internet. I agreed, but probably only because it took about 10 minutes to read 102 on the thermometer.

We immediately began throwing items in the diaper bag and rushed off to our local hospital. Rookie mistake.

The local hospital was ill-equipped to take care of an infant. He was not monitored in the ER at all, and working with an automated Sepsis system for years, I knew Auggie needed to be observed much more thoroughly.

I begged for transport to the children’s hospital (where we should have taken him in the first place). By begged, I really mean chased the nurse around until she called for the ambulance herself just to get rid of me.

Once at the children’s hospital, Auggie was monitored overnight and administered acetaminophen rectally because we, nor the nurses at the local or children’s hospital, could get him to swallow it orally. It was determined that the fever probably had something to do with a virus that he had had two weeks earlier and was still having a few complications from.

I’m thankful for the Owlet and it’s ability to clue me in when Auggie needs me. This was only the first incidence that the Owlet has told me what Auggie didn’t. We’ve had colds, and ear infections, and Hand Foot and Mouth, and plenty of other illnesses that the Owlet prepared me for and then equipped me with the knowledge to make a difference.

Auggie is now 19 months old, and I’m still using the Owlet. I know the end is near, and I’m dreading our break up. But like an ex-boyfriend, Owlet has made me a better person… err, mom.

Thank you, Owlet, for being the “mom” I wasn’t yet sure of how to be. You made a world of difference.