As some of you know, our sons were born at 32 weeks gestation and because of this, they had to start their lives in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. They spent 38 days there with around the clock monitoring and care by sweet nurses and machines. Very early on, my husband and I learned about the monitors, what each alarm meant, what each number meant and what happened when certain numbers went too low or too high.

Many of our friends asked “will you have them on some kind of monitoring system when they come home?” At first, I said no.. I didn’t want to overwhelm the boys with more monitors wireless or not. I didn’t want to freak out about numbers, I wanted to mother the twins just as I would any of our other babies. The nurses reassured me that they wouldn’t send the twins home without being 100% certain that they were ready.

Just before we went home, Argon’s monitor sounded an alarm three days in a row that read “apnea” the sound was quite scary but looking at him, we realized that he was just fine and that the monitor just wasn’t picking up the movement of his abdomen. These “false alarms” got me thinking.. Maybe we should look into some kind of monitor that would be comfortable for them, and for me.

So, I began looking online and I found the Snuza Hero Monitor. This is not an oxygen and heart rate monitor, I feel as though those devices for these little guys was a little much. Our sons are not expected to have any kind of events or issues with breathing or heart rate, but it does give me peace of mind to have something that would let me know if they did stop breathing, even if it was just for seconds.

We all have pauses in breathing (even us adults) for around 10 seconds periodically. With babies, sometimes they need a little nudge to get breathing again if it’s been too long. That’s where the Snuza Hero comes in. This cute little clip could be what helps to save the life of a healthy baby who just stayed in the apnea phase for too long. These monitors will vibrate if the baby hasn’t had any abdominal breath movement for 15 seconds, if it reaches 20 seconds and there still isn’t any movement, the monitor with then ring an alarm at 85 decibels to be sure and wake a sleeping parent. Then, the parent will come and stimulate the baby or perform CPR if there is something wrong.

The Snuza Hero monitor clips onto the front of baby’s diaper, the rubber tip will rest gently against the baby’s abdomen. This is necessary to be able to pick up the baby’s movements to be sure that they are breathing. This monitor doesn’t depend upon your phone to convey a reading to you, it can do that with lights. A red light on the Hero will tell you that there was some kind of an event during the night where the Hero needed to stimulate baby with vibration.

I have two of these (one for each baby) and so far, we haven’t had any events. I know that this product actually works because when I lay it down beside the boys to change their diapers, it will vibrate and then the alarm will ring if I forget to turn it off. Our twins wear the Snuza Hero monitors throughout the day and night because we just want to be safe, and to make sure that they are getting the best of care and attention should they need it. We have been lucky to not have any events however, I can see this device being a wonderful tool to help parents have that peace of mind whether their baby was born healthy and full term or had some time in the NICU like our babies did.

You can purchase your Snuza Hero at various retailers including; Walmart, Target and Best Buy to name a few!