Sense

I think it's natural to secretly harbor dread about what will happen with your baby. The illusion that tragedy only befalls other people does not apply to new parents, I suspect. Rather, we concoct elaborate doomsday scenarios because we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into.

What if the umbilical cord wraps around the neck?

What about SIDS?

What about the relationship between my clumsiness and gravity?

It can keep you up at night, especially if you're not feeling very friendly toward yourself. And even if you and your partner are not the least bit exceptional medically, there's a feeling that you might be due, that the ugly head of karma has avoided you but has its eyes lasered on your baby.

Well, I must say that I'm completely geeking out about something Julie's parents got us. It's a movement sensor mat that you put under the crib mattress. If your baby were to, say, stop breathing for 20 seconds, it would sound an alarm not unlike the one our government will use to signify curfew after the zombie revolution. Loud, in other words.

I think part of the deal with SIDS is that the brain stem isn't fully developed. Therefore, a breathing malfunction can occur because the brain might not communicate effectively yet with the lungs. It's rare, of course, but it's one of those things that even parents without highly creative death imaginations worry about.

But a device that beeps when your baby stops breathing! It's tough to quantify piece of mind, but I can safely say that this device might, for me, be worth 300+ hours of sleep. And it might also save our daughter's life.