How a Video Monitor Saved Our Daughter's Life

Yeah, we're the typical first time parents that want all the coolest, new things for our baby. We registered for/bought a lot of things that I'm sure people rolled their eyes at and thought, "They'll never use that..." A video baby monitor was one of those items. I heard a lot of comments saying they were unnecessary or that the old ones worked just fine, no video feed was needed. Well....we beg to differ after the experience we had Friday night.

We put Ryleigh in her crib at 9pm, just like we do every night. Everything was normal, she was sleeping like an absolute angel. (She really is a GREAT baby!) We headed to bed ourselves and fired up the new season of Orange is the New Black on Netflix. (Whoo hoo!) Around 11pm, Ry looked over at the monitor and noticed Ryleigh kicking and moving her arms erratically. He asked me what she was doing and when I looked at the monitor, I KNEW something was wrong. She wasn't making ANY sounds and her movements were not normal. We both flew down the hallway to her room and when I pulled her out of the crib she wasn't breathing. She had an unusual amount of spit in her mouth and throat. She was still kicking and her eyes and face were red. I leaned her forward and patted on her back, helping the spit out. Ry then got her and gave her a puff of air in her mouth. She finally took in a gasp of air and started coughing, then crying. 

We called an ambulance to assess her. By the time they got here she had calmed down and was falling back asleep. They advised us to take her to her pediatrician ASAP, but that there wasn't much that the hospital would do except monitor her. 

We followed up with her pediatrician and it looks as though she has reflux.

Thank God. Obviously we don't want our daughter to have issues with reflux, but THANK GOD she's alive. Without the video monitor I don't see how we would have ever known that she was choking. There was absolutely no sound coming from her, so a regular monitor would have never alarmed us of what was happening. I will NEVER tell a new parent that they won't need something that they feel that they need. You never know what will or won't come in handy...or, more importantly, may possibly aid in saving their child's life.