Hey all! I hope you are all doing well. Life is crazy here (crazy!) but we are loving it. I could not be more in love with these little boys. They are so fun. Anyway...the boys turn six months today. We have them wearing Snuza Hero alarms. Part of me knows that they will not necessarily prevent catastrophe, but another part of me is reassured that the alarms might at least catch a high percentage of situations. Did you use them? For how long? SIDS risks definitely drop after six months (nothing magical about THE DAY), but they are not eliminated. Right now, our boys wear them during naps away from us and at night. We figure we will keep them wearing them until they can take them not themselves. That could be in a few weeks or might be a few months. What did others do? Julie?

I hope all of you are doing well. I'd love to hear updates from anyone and everyone...parenting living children Or not. Much love to you all!

Have no idea Carrie - but it was fun to hear of their 6 month birthday!

Thanks, KO! They are doing great. I keep meaning to write you an email (bad friend!). I will send new photos when I do :-). Hope you're doing well and feeling ok.

I used the snuza with my daughter until she was about a year old, it helped me be able to leave the room for twenty to thirty minutes at a time when she slept. It did go off now and again, mostly when she had shifted but once when I was sure it saved her life. Use it as long as you need to, you dont have to justify it to anyone, as long as you feel like you need that reassurance.

I used it til my dd was about 8 months - she wriggled around so much at that stage it false alarmed a few times and also reckon it may have been uncomfortable when she rolled over. Yeah, risk goes right down after about 6 months. She slept in our room til 20 months. Do what feels best for you - I know without Snuza I would have had much increased anxiety and insomnia and who needs that when it's already at a premium when you have small babies! Esp twins :-)

I think we'll probably transition around 8-9 months. We'll see. Rhys's went off in the middle of last night because he was playing with it. So... it may be quicker than we thought! Thanks for the feedback all.

Hi Carrie, 6 months - yey!! I only used the Snuza for the first 5 weeks or so because Elise HAD to sleep on someone. I finally figured out she would only sleep on her belly by herself and the Snuza just became difficult to attache to the back/side of her diaper so she wasn't laying on it. We go a baby sense under the mattress monitor and loved it from then on. At one point when she started inching around more it was going off a lot, but then we figured out we didn't have both sensors hooked up right. We used this until I think 10 months. At that point we flew back to my parents house and weren't going to deal with brining it along. She got RSV around 6months and it was terrible. She coughed for about 8 weeks and had a lot of trouble breathing at night laying down. We could only keep her sleeping upright on us for so long and she wouldn't sleep in her car seat or other upright contraptions where we could have used the Snuza again. I"m pretty sure one night she stopped breathing enough for the alarm to go off because I stumbled in super groggy and she wasn't even moving. She was either crazy deep sleep or ? I sort of jiggled her/rubbed her back and then felt her moving/breathing for sure. It's hard to say in my half-sleep state but once I woke up more I kind of freaked out. Usually the alarm woke her up and she'd start crying or looking around, so that was strange. Anyways, as everyone else says, do what feels right for you. Even at 10months I was cringing not using it, but I kept reminding myself that at some point we have to "let go" in a sense that we can't prevent everything and we can't monitor them forever. I finally convinced my husband we didn't need the video monitor because if she cries we can hear her in our bedroom - right next door!! She was waking us up with every little noise she's make but we never were going in. He just felt more comfortable knowing every little noise she made until about 12.5months! She's now just about to turn 14 months. Okay, really long-winded post. Take care!

Hi Carrie!! Gosh it's been awhile since I've been on glow. Glad you and the boys are well. We had to stop using Snuza w Addison. She was moving so much and we had so many false alarms. We now use the angelcare system in her crib, and we really like it. Addison is nearing 8 months old and is almost crawling. Still not even close to sleeping through the night. But we can't do CIO. We are wimps!! Anyway we loved the Snuza but seemed to "grow out of it". Much love to you!!

Thanks Julie. The boys are just over 6 months and Rhys moves around like crazy in his crib. We get at least two false alarms every night because it just slides off a little. It seems like we're moving less and less fast with each one. Sigh. Like the boy who cried wolf. I wonder if the Angelcare would work for us or if he moves around too much and would come off the pad.

I'm glad to hear that Addison is doing so well. Our boys are terrific, too. They learn something new every day. I can see their little brains working. They still get up once each night (Usually around 12:30 or 1 - go to bed at 6 and we can't seem to get them to stay up any later!). We did do some CIO because they were not able to put themselves to sleep and S was getting up every hour or so to soothe one or the other. It was SO SO SO painful (and controversial), but it was the best thing we did for our family. We were going crazy. The boys now seem to welcome nighttime sleep (naps, not so much) and they go to sleep pretty easily and don't awaken until they need a snack. Such a change!

Its funny. I wonder if when we stop using the Snuza's if the boys will miss that "sleep signal" since we always put it on them right before its time to go to sleep.

We stopped using the Snuza around 5 months, it would slip off and have a false alarm, and it also felt like it had done its job. E was strong and healthy and it eventually felt like the alarm was for us, not him.

There is an informative chart here of sids deaths by month in the U.S. I found it helpful. As the text notes, 90% occur by six months.

http://www.babywill.org/sids-information/what-is-sids/sids-statistics

Not that the remaining 10% is negligible, we all know that.

Thanks, D. The alarms are definitely more for us than they are for them. I just can't let it go. My PTSD brain tells me that the moment I don't use them that something horrible will happen. Then, not only will something horrible have happened (which the alarm likely could not have prevented anyway at this age), it will be my fault. Sigh.... I HATE PTSD.