The Best Baby Product I Ever Bought

In the past I have written about baby products that we love, here and here, but for the past month we have been using a product that I wish we would have had in the beginning. If I would have known that it existed during the registry process it would have been on the list.

Angel Care Movement Monitor

The Angel Care Movement and Sound Monitor has been our best purchase by far. It includes a movement board that you put under the crib mattress. When the monitor is turned on it counts the breaths your baby takes. If there is no movement for 20 seconds an alarm goes off to warn you. It also includes sound so you can hear the baby, a night light, and a thermometer to tell the temp of the room with an alarm that goes off if it gets too hot or too cold. But my favorite feature of it is the pendulum that swings back and forth showing breaths taken.
I haven't talked about this on the blog, but Little Man was born with a breathing issue. He can only breath out of one nostril and so it causes a lot of congestion when he is sleeping. I spent the first month of his life with him constantly sleeping in my arms so I could make sure he could breath. This left what little time I had to sleep even more difficult. I was doing some research and came across this monitor. It is mostly used for SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), although it is not FDA approved for SIDS prevention. I thought that it would work great for me so I could sleep and know he is safe in his crib.
So far the alarm has gone off a few times and each time I run into the room and he is fine, but I would rather have a false alarm than no alarm at all. In the reviews for this product dozens of families talked about how this monitor saved their baby from suffocation.
This monitor cost anywhere from $80-240 depending on what extras you get (there is an option with video also) but the peace of mind that comes with knowing your baby is safe is worth every penny.
The only thing I would change about the unit is for the sound monitor to stay on when the motion monitor is turned off. You must turn off the monitor when the baby is out of the crib or the alarm goes off because there is no movement. This also turns off the sound feature. In the future I'm sure that I will want a sound monitor for when Little Man is playing in his room by himself but not in bed. I would prefer for that option to stay on while the motion monitor is turned off.  Other than that this is amazing.

So if you are looking for the perfect gift for the next baby shower, or the best thing to put on your registry, this is it.