Dear Snuza...

When I was pregnant, I did a LOT of research... Anything that could possibly come up during pregnancy, delivery, after care, and raising of Diana I did as much reading as I could.  One of the things I was most nervous about was her sleeping and SIDS

If you searching "Baby Sleeping Monitor", Google will hook you up with PLENTY of options!  The ones I had actually heard about from other friends were the Owlet - which is like a little sock thing, The Angelcare Monitor - which would go under the mattress, and the Snuza - which clips to her diaper to monitor movement.

I read about all 3 of these options and watched youtube reviews as well.  Ultimately, we decided to go with the Snuza.  As the video above indicates, it clips on to her diaper and rests against her belly. 

Fast forward to bringing ole girl home... We started using it the very night we brought her home!  We came home on a Monday... and the monitor woke us up on Wednesday morning!!! Not because she wasn't breathing, but because I failed to latch her diaper correctly in the middle of the night... I felt extremely thankful that the monitor had sounded, but nothing was wrong.  I went back to bed thankful, but crying thinking about the parents who don't get the alarm or the alarm is too late.  Heart breaking.

Fast forward some more!!  We have had the occasional false alarm due to either the diaper being too lose or the monitor being moved when Diana moves around in her sleep - until this weekend... The alarm sounded, and I went running (her room is about 10 feet down the hall from ours - I don't have to run too far) When I got to her crib, she wasn't moving.  In the past, when it was a false alarm, I would get to her and she would be awake looking at me or starting to cry from the noise.  Not this time.  She wasn't reacting to the noise. At all! 

I picked her up and turned her over, which THEN she finally opened her eyes and smiled real big at me. Thank God!! 

She was, thankfully, perfectly fine.  She even nursed back to sleep, while I sat there in tears.  I can't tell you with confidence that this was a false alarm - but I CAN tell you that had we not had a Snuza, the outcome could have been drastically different. I truly believe that Snuza very well saved my daughters life this weekend.

We have the Snuza Hero and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with a little at home, who wants to sleep peacefully knowing that this product WILL alert you!





***I was NOT paid by Snuza, and will NOT be receiving any type of compensation for my opinion or your purchase of any Snuza product.  My review reflects my own opinion and is not supported by Snuza in any way***

Tired Much??

Many of you know, but just in case you don't... I used to be a sleep walker and talker.  To the tune of night terrors and waking up in random places all over the house.  My poor husband would usually wake up in time to keep me from getting too far out of bed, but sometimes not.

While I was pregnant, I not only stopped sleep walking and talking, I ALSO stopped having such horrible night terrors!  I actually got decent sleep while pregnant, which is not apparently a norm...

Until this morning...

Brandon worked last night, and got home around 2:30 this morning.  I had finally fallen asleep around 1, but something caused me to stir... I thought I heard voices through the baby monitor.  What I was seeing and hearing was a house full of family, mainly Brandon's grandparents in Diana's room with her.  For some reason, I felt the urge to get up, get dressed and see what was happening - logically I KNEW no one should have been in her room... she was sleeping!!  But in dreamland, the great-grandparents were in her room trying to wake her up...

In reality AND my dream, I was getting out of my bed, but thought it would be inappropriate to go in there in my jammies - for the record, I sleep in pajama pants and a t-shirt... nothing inappropriate about that, but I thought it was at 2:30 this morning... So, as I am changing my pajama pants for a different pair (keep in mind, this is all while sleeping...) down the hall comes the husband...

I screamed because now there was someone in the hall way... which caused me to wake up... which also caused me to scream because now there REALLY was someone in the hall way... which caused him to yell because I startled him and he didn't understand why 1 - I was awake and 2 - why was I screaming??!!

When I finally gained full consciousness, we had a good laugh and then went and stared at our baby girl who was still sound asleep in her crib.

I am not a tired mom because ole girl won't sleep... I am a tired mom because my brain won't shut off long enough to let me sleep!!

Have a restful weekend, y'all!!

Last Day of 32

I can't help but laugh at that meme!  It is so funny!  Fat Amy is a pretty amazing character to begin with.

Pre 5k Jitters

In a couple of hours, I will run the first 5k since the highway 64 run!  And needless to say, I am a little anxious... I am not a runner... I am hardly a walker!!

But with some friends on tow, we WILL finish!  And once we finish, I will be riding roller coasters the same distance, at Six Flags St. Louis!  It's going to be super duper fun!  My only worry is that I won't fit on the rides... I haven't been to Six Flags in about 5 years.  And I know I have put on some weight since then.

Tonight, we had a decent hail storm come through.  So far, I haven't noticed any damage, so I am not worried.  But we decided to pull my husband's car into the garage as far as we could.  We have a 2 car garage, but we have 3 cars.  My daily, his daily, and his race car - SRT4.  He is rebuilding the engine and other things that I don't quite understand or know how to explain, so it is up on jack stands.  

I pulled my car up as far as I could, and we pulled his daily in behind mine.  And then we stood there and watched as the back end got pelted with ice... No damage that we can tell.

Once the ice turned into rain, he jumped in his car to move it back to its normal spot - out front of our house.  My job was simple... walk back in the house.  (Our garage is not attached...)

When I opened the door to head back to the house, water and ice came rushing in.  I jumped out the door, slammed it behind me... and the next thing I knew... my feet were in the air!  And somehow, my mind went straight into Judo training!!  BREAK FALL!!  I tucked my chin, and slapped the concrete once I made contact.  I didn't hit my head, I am not hurt!  Which is good, because I WILL finish both 5ks tomorrow!

I took my melatonin about an hour ago, but I think I am too worked up.  Dreamland is not coming so easily.

So, I am going to at least make an attempt at sleeping, as 5:30am is going to get here too quick!

Enjoy your Sunday!  What are YOU doing to stay active??

People say “I’m going to sleep now,” as if it were nothing! – George Carlin

This rainy weather makes me want to sleep… I don’t sleep well at night.  I don’t think I ever have!  But the doctor tells me that sleep is important…

I have a hard time falling asleep… and when I DO fall asleep, I have a hard time staying that way.  I have a tendency to sleep walk – which is super fun waking up in random places all over the house.  And I have night terrors!  I see things standing over me, or coming into my bedroom.  Sometimes I will see things coming out of my ceiling, or even up from the floor! 

It’s really fun when my dream is so vivid, I think it’s real, that I start screaming and wakes my husband up from a dead sleep… That was super fun.  NOT!  What I saw was a zombie lying next to me in my bed, it snapped its eyes open, and started attacking (yes, we watch way too much Walking Dead!)  What do you do when you are attacked?  You fight back right?!  Well, in reality, my husband was lying next to me, sleeping and minding his own business.  Back to my dream… I started screaming and pushing said zombie away from me while it was pushing against my hands to take a big ol’ bite!!  My husband wakes to the terrified screams of his wife, and the first thing he thinks is that someone is in the house!  So he starts trying to roll over me to get between me and the alleged intruder.  Meanwhile, our dog is running around the room, because she has no idea what is happening! 

This is one of my favorite “Craziness while sleeping” stories.  And now, we get a good laugh when we talk about it.

But on a serious note, the suggested amount of sleep is 7-9 solid hours of sleep.  I average 5-7 each night.  I do sleep much better when my husband is home, but he works midnights during the week.  From what I read, and hear on different pod casts, sleep time is different for each person.  Some people can function on more sleep, some can function on less. 

When I do sleep, I sleep HARD!  To the point where my alarm clock has to be all the way up, or else I just won’t hear it.  Sometimes, when my husband comes home in the morning, he can hear my alarm when he is walking from the garage to the house!  And sometimes, he even has to come in and wake me up because I STILL haven’t heard the alarm go off.

On nights that I am wide awake and it’s almost bed time, I will take a melatonin to help usher me to sleep.  Sometimes it works in 30 minutes, sometimes it works in 2 hours, and the real kick in the head is when it doesn’t work… at all!

Please don’t misunderstand me… I LOVE sleep!  Once I am asleep, I could sleep for hours and hours!  I treasure my nap time too!  Sunday afternoon, we always take a nap; even if only for an hour.  Lucy likes her sleep too!  She is such a funny dog… she will sleep as long as we will let her!

So for those of you fortunate enough to nap on this rainy day… Enjoy!  Snore extra for me!

How long do you normally sleep each night?