Let’s talk mom anxiety…

If you know me, you know that I am a very laid back mom and always have been, even with Ava. Maybe I’m just a laid back person in life or maybe I just was naive or maybe it was the babysitting I did for years, when I first had Ava but I felt like it was such a breeze and I really didn’t worry about much. And then I started seeing all of those horror stories (probably because Facebook knew I had become a mom so showed me all of the mom content that I DIDN’T want to see). That and I knew more moms once I became a mom and so, saw all of the mom stories in the news and just personally.

Moral of the Story: All of the horror stories I saw all over the place definitely brought on more anxiety.

…the nanny-cam scares, the day care horrors, the real-life SIDS stories. And while I am, to this day, pretty laid back about things, I do worry about sleep. Like a ton. I am the mom who follows all of the sleep rules too a tee, no matter how much it makes me struggle to get sleep myself — no co-sleeping, no blankets whatsoever (even if it would potentially help my babies sleep better), no comforter and no pillows (we didn’t give Ava one until she was 2 years old) and all of the things. So I’m laid back but when it comes to sleep, I’m the mom that thinks “It happens so it could happen to me.”

Of course, I don’t want to lose sleep while my kids are actually sleeping, staying up worrying about them during those golden hours, staring at the monitor to make sure I see breathing or checking on my kids in their rooms every 15 minutes so here are two things I’ve done to combat that mom anxiety while still ensuring my kids are safe.

1. Levana Oma Sense

We used the same style clip-on monitor with Ava and we’re doing it again with Franky because it gives us just so much peace of mind while we sleep.

The Levana Oma Sense is a little clip on device that monitor’s your baby’s breathing and alerts you if no movement is detected. It also uses a patented algorithm called WakeUp™ Technology which helps eliminate false alarms that many other monitors are prone to. My sleep is priceless, as a mom, and this just ensures more peace of mind while I sleep soundly at night… even if it’s only for a couple hours at a time.

2. Turn Off the Baby Monitor Screen

With Ava, I was constantly checking that screen that was always on, sitting there on my night stand. Even if she was making no noise and no movement, I’d wake up in the middle of the night to check on her via that monitor screen. Well this time around, we are using a monitor with an app and while everyone questioned whether it would be a hassle having to open up the app to see my babies, it has made a world of a difference for me. I sleep more soundly and that is a must for every mom. So turn off that screen if you have one or use a monitor that is in-app and I swear, it has been such an amazing decision for us.