Life is a roller coaster and stress is generally something that can’t be avoided, especially as a fantastic but fatigued new parent! Having a baby will be one of the wildest rides you’ll ever go on, and you’ll have a lot of things to juggle, remember and think about. Regular stress affects all of us, but it’s stress at high levels that can have an effect on our mental and physical wellbeing. It’s also been found that our stress levels may have an effect on our little one’s brains (see our post on how stress affects babies for more on this).
Parenthood is absolutely incredible, but your brain will be constantly buzzing. From worrying about their development, to finances, to returning to work and right down to the number of nappies you’re changing – parenthood can get overwhelming but, luckily, there are products out there that can help ease the pressure a little bit.
The Bluebell Smart monitoring system was created by three dads who understand how stressful being a parent can be. It has loads of features which have all been planned and designed specifically to not only help look after baby, but to help look after you too.
You’re only alerted when needed
If you’ve ever used a traditional audio/visual monitor, you may be guilty of ‘monitor watching’. Of course, we’d love to be by our baby’s side all the time, but that’s just not possible. So, we’ve created Bluebell so that you can get on with things while still being connected to your little one.
The Baby monitor device monitors your baby’s breathing, temperature, crying, sleep and whether they’ve rolled on their tummy. You then get alerts on these to your Parent wristband and Mobile app. For example, if baby has a fever and their temperature gets too high, you’ll be alerted straight away, even if you’re sleeping, in the garden, in the shower, etc. you’ll then know it’s time to check on them – something that watching a monitor won’t give you.
Worrying about how baby’s doing can be super stressful, especially for first time parents. As parents ourselves, we looked at the main things we worried about when our little ones were born and worked that monitoring into Bluebell. We did this all with the hope that future parents could worry less, relax more, and enjoy those special first few years.
No need to keep getting up
Those five extra minutes are heavenly for new parents who lose, on average, around 350 hours of sleep in their baby’s first year! Getting up just to check on baby in the night can interrupt sleep massively; tiptoeing over to their cot to hold a finger to their mouth to check their breathing, making sure they’re sleeping on their back, or that their blanket is keeping them warm enough but not too warm. These are all things we did as new parents, so we designed Bluebell to alert you on these, meaning you don’t have to keep getting up and you can get a bit more sleep.
The Bluebell Mobile app can also help with this, especially if baby moves into their own room after around six months. The Mobile app can be used to control the Smart hub which goes in the nursery. You can use it to listen in to baby’s room and talk to them so, for example, if you get an alert that baby’s woken up and is crying but you know it’s not time for a feed, you can talk to them through the app and settle them back to sleep. Alternatively, you can use the app to turn on a lullaby or white noise to settle them back to sleep.
The Smart hub also has a night light that can be switched on, off and dimmed using the Mobile app. So if you need to go in for a feed or change in the middle of the night, the light (which is free from blue light) will cause as little interruption as possible to yours and baby’s sleep.
It’s been found that sleep and stress are strongly connected. If you don’t sleep enough at night, your body can boost levels of stress hormones, and higher stress levels means you’ll probably lie awake worrying instead of getting the sleep you need. This is a catch 22, but you can start to help it by targeting sleep and the things that can interrupt and affect it.
It tracks you too
Not only is good sleep important to reduce stress levels, but so is activity. Exercising and making sure you’re hitting your step targets can help you get a better night’s rest. Exercise also releases endorphins (natural painkillers) that can improve sleep and reduce stress. The Bluebell Parent wristband has a sleep and step tracker built in to focus on how you’re doing.
We know that exercise might not be at the top of your list when baby arrives, but your wellbeing is mega important. You could try a mum and baby exercise class, or even take baby out for a walk with you (it’s been found that plenty of sunlight in the afternoon can help baby sleep better, plus Bluebell will keep monitoring them outside the home – perfect!).
Easily get into a regular routine
Are you changing enough wet nappies? Did the babysitter give them their 3pm feed? How much milk have they had today? Did they have their medication last night? Organisation is key with a new baby, but who has time to write all of this down? Bluebell reduces some of the stress of all this tracking and planning by simplifying it.
You can use Bluebell to plan your routine and get reminders on each routine activity so that everything’s done on schedule. For example, you’ve probably heard that getting baby into a consistent bedtime routine can help them to sleep better). You could add in a bedtime routine of 6pm bath, 6:30pm story time, 6:45pm feed, 7pm bed. You can set this to remind you every night, so you’ll never fall out of their routine. This can also be followed by anyone looking after them on their own version of the app!
You can also delete those confusing spreadsheets and track everything with Bluebell. Nappies, feeds, pumping, medication, amounts of these, etc. can all be tracked on your Mobile app and Parent wristband, quickly and easily. You can then look back at everything that’s been tracked and have a continuous log of what baby’s been up to. We’ve kept it all in one place to make life a little bit easier for you!
Keep an eye on them wherever you are
Whether you’re going to work, running errands or looking to have a well-deserved evening out, it’s totally understandable that you might worry about baby when leaving them with someone else (especially for the first time – sad faces all round). But you don’t have to worry too much – the Bluebell Mobile app means that you can keep up to date with how baby’s doing from wherever you are. This can give you peace of mind when they’re left with friends, family or a babysitter, and let you get on with things.
Of course, nobody can completely remove stress from their life. It’s a part of who we are it’s actually a natural response to help us to overcome certain things (and some of it can even be beneficial). It’s the intense stress that we really don’t want, so if Bluebell can help reduce stress for new parents in any way, we know that we’re doing our job. We hope to continue developing Bluebell so that it can work with families as they grow to be an extra helping hand when they need it most.
Click here to buy your own Smart monitoring system.
And if you’ve already got one, we’d love to hear how Bluebell’s helped you and your family – let us know!
