Pros and cons of the baby monitor...

vrgarcia80

I have a small house, my baby's room is right next door and yet my mother-in-law buys me a simple baby monitor but now that I'm looking at it, I would prefer the wifi/internet one from toysrus. Any pros or cons?

HStrawberry

We have a very tiny house (600 sq feet with an unfinished basement). After talking with several friends who have kids already, we opted for a simple audio monitor. We decided against an internet based one as some friends had bad experiences (it completely blocked or dramatically reduced their internet so they couldn't use it while the monitor was in use). Our town is so small it doesn't get the same high speed internet as in the city so that was definitely a factor.

jmcmoe

I have a huge house (3500) and I can hear the baby without any monitor. We do have a regular baby monitor which is good, but we did get one that we use with our iPhones which was good because we could check it when we were outside in the yard because we have wi-fi in the house but the app could be used on data. It's more just like a camera with infra-red so you can see the baby in the dark. That camera I got at an electronics store for about $100 cdn and it's great! Although when DS was able to pull himself up an started noticing things, anything with a light on it (both monitors and fans etc) had to go because he would stand there pointing and screaming...but in assuming it won't bother every baby and we plan on hooking up the camera when this LO moves to the nursery!

BookitBoo

We have a big house with an upstairs/basement level. The nursery is on the basement level right beneath our room. Baby will move down there when she outgrows the bassinet, and we can hear her from our room but we prefer a video moniter.


The last time we put DS In the crib (same room) I watched DH put him down in the crib and leave. I kept watching and DS was crawling out after his daddy. Luckily I was able to use the speaker function to call back to DH and he scooped the escape artist up before he fell out.

UberBiz

We only use an audio monitor. Our house isn't that big, but it has weird acoustics and some rooms you can hear EVERYTHING in the house, and other spots you can't hear shit, so when DS is napping upstairs, (or after he goes to bed at night and we're still downstairs), it's nice to have that extra assurance that we will hear him through the monitor, cuz if we're watching a movie or something it's hard to tell if extra noise is him or whatever..

So, a cheap audio works for us. Others might be in a situation where video might be best. We also have a 4-camera security system, so if worse comes to worst and we really feel like we need a video on the baby, we can use on of the cameras we already have lol.

robsbabygirl08

I don't care about the sound, I can hear the baby without it. But I NEED the video. I would use it to watch DD when she would be playing in her crib or room. Because if you walk in there to check on them, and they see you, Game Over! They will automatically become discontent

mmooki

We have a 2 story townhouse, no basement and we never used one. The bedroom doors are kept open at night otherwise they get too cold in the winter so we never had a problem hearing her.

LuckyPenny1231

robsbabygirl08 said:

I don't care about the sound, I can hear the baby without it. But I NEED the video. I would use it to watch DD when she would be playing in her crib or room. Because if you walk in there to check on them, and they see you, Game Over! They will automatically become discontent

Yup, this. I can hear baby from our room but I need the video feature. Just because they are quiet doesn't mean they are asleep. Like when I busted my daughter standing on top of her dresser yesterday.

One time the sound monitor did come in handy was in the summer when we were out in the backyard at night.

ECATX

robsbabygirl08 said:

I don't care about the sound, I can hear the baby without it. But I NEED the video. I would use it to watch DD when she would be playing in her crib or room. Because if you walk in there to check on them, and they see you, Game Over! They will automatically become discontent

I totally agree. Sometimes DD cries in the middle of the night, and I can see on the monitor if she's going back to sleep (which is 99% of the time). If we go in her room, she'll never go back to sleep!

RibbetRibbet

We have a two story with a basement. Our rooms are right next to each other, and we only used the monitor when I would be in the basement doing laundry and he was upstairs napping. He was in our room for the first 4 months, so it was pretty pointless anytime before that to have a monitor- but to each their own. I think it would come in handy more now to have a video one when he's playing a little too quietly in his room

mali3

I have a fairly big house and we got a new monitor from costco - $100 for a handheld 2 room camera video montior! You can talk through it too. With 4,000 sq feet we can hear the kids cry anywhere in the house, be we have a 2 year old and we like to see what she is doing in her room - thats what we really use it for - spying on kids lol. I didnt think $100 was much to spend so for me it was worth it. In our last house which was very small we didnt use one, but my daughter was an infant so i knew she wasnt going anywhere

ETA: I also find that the montior will come in handy when I am recovering from csection. I like being able to talk to my daughter through the camera and this will help when its not so easy for me to move when I am recovering. I can just tell her to lay down rather than go up there (and she actually listens lol).

mmur76

We have a tiny house but we still got a video monitor. I'm not worried about not being able to hear the baby, but I want to be able to see him when he's in another room.  

FTM, so I'm not sure if this will be necessary, but that is my thought right now.  

mom2case

Yes, yes, yes on the video monitor!  We didn't get one until DD was 12 months but it was so helpful.  Even now, I wish we had it set up.  I want to know if she's sleeping or playing in bed but opening her door to check is NOT an option!

Stephij1

First of all, I originally read the post title as "Pros and cons of a baby" and started wondering wtf was going on.
Now that my brain has caught up with me for the day: We have a plain ol' audio monitor from Target that we've loved. It has an "on" setting and a "voice activated" setting. It's sensitive enough that we could hear DD breathing in her crib, which made me feel much better. I don't have experience with a video monitor, but I've never felt the need for one.

stephchris0321

We used an audio monitor with DS and it worked for us. We live in a small, 3 bedroom, one-story home. DH refuses to upgrade to a video monitor because we don't really need it and I'm cool with that.

amandad715

On our 3rd baby & we always used an audio monitor. Video monitors were just coming out when I was first pregnant and they've gotten more the norm. I caved & just bought a $99 video monitor online from Target on thanksgiving night. Glad to here that it's worth it!

BackseatDriver

We can't hear DS if we are downstairs with the TV or radio on. We have been using the video monitor more now that he is in his bed, but our monitor interferes with our wifi which sucks. E mostly leave the receiver off unless we need to check on him. For #2 I want to get a plain audio monitor rather than an extra camera so I can leave it on.