Babies home today at 2 days old. Wife went in other room and passed out after I told her that everything would be fine and I would watch the baby and give her the 10pm feeding. Wife told me to go to sleep after she was fed, whoever gets up when she cries around 2am will feed her. Problem is, I can’t even think about sleep. I’ve got to walk in every 10 minutes to make sure she is alive. Between SIDS, some crazy breaking in to steal her and 5,000 other things, I’m wide awake and listening to the baby monitor. Yeeesh. Parenthood. I might not last the week.
baby is home, not babies…couldn’t handle more than one
Hang in there. You’ll make it and next year around this time, it’ll be old hat for ya.
I’ve got three Silverjuniors. I’m only awake at this hour because it’s the most peaceful time. All the juniors are sleeping and Silver gets the 'puter and a leisurely spell of peace and quiet.
Congratulations on the new baby. 
heh! parental paranoia … I remember that . Creeping upstairs about every hour … still breathing? yep, ok…
cut to today … small girl #1 (2 1/2) soundly asleep in her room, tiny girl #2 (4 months) in hers … not even tempted to look . They might wake up … and we LIKES the sleeping babies!
it does get better, I promise.
silver, how old are the juniors?
The Long Road, I’m exactly the same way when it comes to babysitting. Relax and enjoy, don’t stress. 
If you look at the overall cost/benefit analysis, your baby’s biggest risk is probably you not getting a good nights sleep. SIDS is a whole lot of things put together and you only have control over a small amount of them. However, if you have to drive sleep deprived - big risk. The same thing in the home.
Get some sleep. You owe it to that child to get some sleep for its own safety.
Hey there** Kythereia** -
My eldest is six, the middle child is nearly four, and the youngest is nearly two years old now. The fun never ends! 
Big congratulations to you, Long Road. The Briston baby is now 2.5 months along, and I already miss how tiny she was as a newborn.
If you want to have a little more peace of mind while she sleeps, might I suggest a Movement Monitor?
Also, a little tip for shortly down the road – we had a helluva time with swaddling the kid so she’d sleep. She was always kicking her way out of the swaddling and waking herself up. Then, my wife came up with her swaddling method. Once we started doing that, the kid was sleeping through the night – sometimes a long as ten hours – at one month old.
LR –
Your screen name is ironic or at least appropriate.
Our only-child is now a sophomore at college. In her fit of separation, she wishes not to hear from either parent. Unless her bank account is deficient.
This is the story of life. You are at the top end of the highway.
Turn off the monitor. You hear way too much, which just feeds paranoia. If the bubacus needs your attention, you’ll know without the gadget.
Congratulations on your newborn!
I have no children, but if it is any comfort I do the same thing when I have neonatal kittens to foster and bottle feed. I have to make sure they are breathing…but if I wake them up I never get back to sleep.
At least you get the joy of watching yours grow. In a small way, I am envious.
congrats. I do check in to make sure the bambina’s are still breathing. It does get better though.
I used to hover over the cradle for long periods of time trying to WILL Kalhoun Jr. into a state of awakeness. He was a little screwed up on his days and nights.
Awww, two day old baby. Pics? Congrats of the highest order!
Fear of SIDS is a horror. With my first (now 4) I was scared w(sh)itless. If he slept in too long there I was with my hand on his back making sure he was breathing. Thank goodness that fear can pretty much go away @ 6 mos.
With the second (1.5) I wasn’t nearly as worried, but still to this day if he sleeps in too long I gotta check to see if he’s alive.
Many studies have indicated that the pads to monitor baby movement (or lack thereof) are of no real benefit. If you need a cite, I’ll search.
Anyway, the advice of sleep-while-the-baby sleeps is a good idea. Hub and I took alternate nights and spent way too many of them on the couch with the baby sleeping in the swing. It is hard to fall back asleep once you’ve been roused – Nick @ Nite can become your friend. Sometimes I’d pop half of a Tylenol PM as soon as I got up with him so that when he was ready to fall back asleep, I was too, pretty much. Sometimes the only thing that gets you though it is knowing it won’t last forever. Really!
Hal, has it been that long already? Wow, time sure flies. The part I enjoyed most (silly me) was being able to answer “how old is he” in weeks. So, your little Briston is what, 10-11 weeks? I know it gets really stupid when you’ve got moms saying their babies are 34 weeks old instead of months. But I just loved saying “oh, he’s five weeks” or whatever.
In my head, this whole thread is being whispered so as not to wake the baby. Hal, you reminded me of this book.
Congratulations on the new baby!
My babies slept in a bassinet for the first few weeks, and I would roll it into whatever room I was in. For some reason I felt they wouldn’t stop breathing as long as I was in the room. By the time the baby outgrew the bassinet I was less paranoid.
Sure 'nuff…11 weeks, three days along now, and getting cuter by the day. When someone asks, I generally answer in months, with “…and a half months” if applicable.
I’d be interested to read what you have on that.
Shayla is currently hooked up to an apnea monitor when she sleeps, but the docs will be taking her off of that in a week or two. While it was no fun having to deal with her apnea, it’s certainly been nice having no worries about SIDS or anything. Now that this monitor is being taken away, my wife has been very concerned. Because of this, a group of girls on a mommies message board my wife belongs to all chipped in and bought us the Angel Care monitor (hella good people over there). We haven’t used it yet, but many of the users over there swear by it. I’d like to see what you’ve heard from the other side.
Yeah, I remember that! I’ve got three kids and with each one, I would wake up in the night, reach over into the crib and lay my hand on them to see if they were still breathing (not so much with my middle child, though, he hardly ever slept!).
I learned with my firstborn that you WILL hear them cough, choke, etc in the night even if you’re sleeping (at least if they’re in a crib next to your bed). She was about four months old and I woke up one night and was holding her upright as she threw up. The bedroom lights were on, my husband was out of the bed and asking if she was ok–and to this day, I have no memory of just HOW all that happened. Don’t remember hearing her make a sound, jumping out of bed–none of it. All I know is that when I awoke, I was standing in a well-lit room with my baby in my arms.
You’ll do OK, Long Road! And congrats to you and your wife! (Oh, and pics would be nice!)
Well, naturally when called on it I can’t find exactly what I was referring to. I did find this article on Consumer Reports website:
snip
November 2005
Baby monitors
Baby monitors are an extra set of ears–and in some cases, eyes–that allow you to keep tabs on your sleeping baby when you’re not in the same room. There are two basic types: audio and video.
Audio monitors operate within a selected radio frequency band to send sound from the baby’s room to a receiver. Video monitors use a small wall- or table-mounted camera that transmits images to a TV-set-like monitor.
Still another way to keep tabs on baby is with movement sensors, under-the-mattress pads that alert you when his or her movement completely stops for more than 20 seconds. While some parents may find movement sensors reassuring, bear in mind that they’re not medical devices and shouldn’t be used in place of prescribed heart or breathing monitors to detect conditions such as sleep apnea. Nor should you rely on them to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the cause of which is still unknown.
A baby monitor’s challenge is to transmit recognizable sound over a distance with minimal interference from other wireless devices.
snip
I assume (uh-oh) that I can post this here since their webpage it was on had an option to “send to a friend” or print.
Also, I didn’t know your daughter had apnea, it sounds like hers might be considered a “medical device”. Shayla is a cute name too.
Yeah, she’s been wired up since she was about three weeks old. For the first couple of weeks, the alarm was going off several times a night. Jump out of bed in a panic, run to the crib, and lightly slap the baby to remind her that breathing is good thing. It hasn’t gone off in nearly a month now though, so I’m not concerned about them taking her off of it.
That write-up makes me think the monitor is exactly what I figured it was – no substitute for professional medical equipment, but good enough for lending a little peace of mind.
Thanks for the info (and sorry for the continued hijack, Long Road)!