diff --git a/app/__init__.py b/app/__init__.py
index 6aa158953..30770000a 100644
--- a/app/__init__.py
+++ b/app/__init__.py
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ notify_celery = NotifyCelery()
 aws_ses_client = AwsSesClient()
 aws_ses_stub_client = None
 aws_sns_client = AwsSnsClient()
-aws_cloudwatch_client = AwsCloudwatchClient()
+aws_cloudwatch_client = None
 encryption = Encryption()
 zendesk_client = None
 redis_store = RedisClient()
@@ -159,7 +159,6 @@ def create_app(application):
     aws_sns_client.init_app(application)
 
     aws_ses_client.init_app()
-    aws_cloudwatch_client.init_app(application)
 
     # start lazy initialization for gevent
     migrate = Migrate()
@@ -168,7 +167,8 @@ def create_app(application):
     zendesk_client.init_app(application)
     document_download_client = DocumentDownloadClient()
     document_download_client.init_app(application)
-
+    aws_cloudwatch_client = AwsCloudwatchClient()
+    aws_cloudwatch_client.init_app(application)
     aws_ses_stub_client = AwsSesStubClient()
     aws_ses_stub_client.init_app(stub_url=application.config["SES_STUB_URL"])
 
diff --git a/tests/app/clients/test_aws_cloudwatch.py b/tests/app/clients/test_aws_cloudwatch.py
index 15f57516e..0f0bfadd4 100644
--- a/tests/app/clients/test_aws_cloudwatch.py
+++ b/tests/app/clients/test_aws_cloudwatch.py
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@ from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
 import pytest
 from flask import current_app
 
-from app import aws_cloudwatch_client
 from app.clients.cloudwatch.aws_cloudwatch import AwsCloudwatchClient
 
+aws_cloudwatch_client = MagicMock()
+
 
 def test_check_sms_no_event_error_condition(notify_api, mocker):
     boto_mock = mocker.patch.object(aws_cloudwatch_client, "_client", create=True)