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Houston Babies
Video Monitors
What are your thoughts on video monitors?
Do you have one? If so, how long did you use it or think you will use it?
Which one do you have and how do you like it? Do you think they are worth it?
I'm moving Evan (and Aidan, but that's a whole other post!) up to his room & with it on the second story I just feel I would rather have a video monitor to see if he's wiggled into the corner and needs help for instance.
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Re: Video Monitors
I have one. It is the Summer brand from Target. I love it. I don't have DD in her own room yet, but I have it set up in our room for when I put her down at night and go back to the living room. If I hear her wrestling around I can see if her binky is in her mouth or if her eyes are open.
Plus, sometimes I just like to watch her sleep.
Have the Summer Day & Night video monitor. Love it. I sorta panicked when we went to move Dylan to his room and ordered one that day online. The only thing I don't like is it can get interference easily, so if I would have had more notice and a bigger budget, I would have ordered the Summer Best View or Summer Slim & Secure monitor instead. Other than that, I love it and will definitely get a video monitor for any future children as well.
BFP with no treatment!
I have the Summer one that is $179 at BRU.
I have a love/hate relationship with it. I will say first of all, I couldn't live with out it (or any video monitor for that matter). I love being able to look and see what she is up to. I can even see her breathing. The monitor give me huge piece of mind, and helps me avoid several unneccesary trips to her bedroom.
But... on the other hand, my husband and I want to throw the thing out of the window every night. We are in a one story (only about 2300 sf), and the static and interference is SO ANNOYING. The hand held part we keep in our room hisses and makes static noises all night. I spend a lot of time trying to get it at the perfect angle where it will make the least amount of noise. Then I am just too annoyed to go to sleep, because I lay there waiting for the next noise it will make.
Maybe it's just mine??? Maybe we got a dud?? Does anyone else have this problem?
I LOVE it. I wanted to be able to take a quick look to avoid having to trudge up the stairs if I didn't need to. Sometimes, you can't tell if they are just crying in their sleep or really awake standing at the bars until you see them. Plus, sometimes me opening the door to his room will get him stirring, so I would like to have as least disturbances as possible when checking on him and he is asleep.
I have the Summer one - I think it was $179? I think it's well worth it especially if you have a 2 story (we do). If you are in a 1-story, probably not as important, as usually they are just next door, and you can go peek.
DS is 13 months, and we still use it. I highly recommend it to my PG friends.
I will also use it as a spying device when he is a teenager. j/k....maybe....
I have the Summer handheld. I don't know how I had a baby without one. Well, yeah I do- it involved me going to his room and checking on him all the time.
We have actually had 2. We lost the charger in Canada and had to buy a whole other monitor. The 1st one never had interference noises but this one does. I think, for us, it's in part b/c it's been dropped a million times.
LOL - I laugh because I can relate... Do you have the Summer Day & Night one? It drives me crazy as well. We put a noise maker in Dylan's room to give him a little white noise while he sleeps so the dogs don't wake him and THAT has helped me keep my sanity. I can manage the constant white noise at night but the hissing that comes and goes would drive me insane. We keep the noise machine pretty low so it's not loud but just enough where it drowns out the dogs barking during the day and covers up the hissing. This is why I'd get a digital one if I could start over again, but I'd still get the Summer brand.
ETA: Karey, do NOT go buy one at BRU. You can get them MUCH cheaper at Amazon. At least the Summer Day & Night one, not sure about the rest. It's $179 at BRU but we got ours for a little over $100 on amazon.
BFP with no treatment!
Yep, that's the one!!!
I bet the white noise machine helps a lot. I didn't know they made a digital one! I'll have to take a look at that. I feel so ripped off already, after paying $179 for the thing. BUT, like I said, I still can't live without the POS thing
We have this one and LOVE it!
https://www.summerinfant.com/categories_products_view/322/BestView--Handheld-Color-Video-Monitor.html
I have never had any interference issues. We can move the camera around so when she is older we can actually see her whole room. DD likes to "party" at night. She wakes up and thumps around and screams with joy and now we just watch and get entertained. It is also nice b/c sometimes when she wakes up for the day she is real quiet but I can turn it on and see that she is up.
thanks - I'm researching and pricing now!
I like having the video part. I think I'll like it even more when he's older and moving around more but I do like being able to see him when I hear him and to just watch him sleep
I had the Summer Infant Slim and Secure Day and Night and took it back. We are in a two story and DS room is upstairs, our is down, but on the same side of the house. This Monitor worked but it had interference/static/made a popping noise all over the downstairs and especially in our bedroom. We used it the first couple of weeks he was home for naps and the noise wasnt annoying but when we moved him to his room for night time it drove me crazy when i was trying to sleep so I took it back.
We got the Safety First prism color video monitor thats a little more $ than the Summer Infant but I've been MUCH happier. It has some quirks but for night time when I mainly use it, I LOVE IT.
1. It has far less interference than the Summer did in our house. It does make the popping noise when in our bedroom but thats the only place and we realize now its because our bedroom has sound insulation. The signal is weak in our bedroom and the popping is the speaker coming back on when the signal is regained. It goes in and out really quick and only loses for less than a second. (see 2 and 3)
2. It has a signal strength indicator. As soon as I step into the hall or bathroom connected to my bedroom, I get full signal. This is how we realized it was our bedroom, not the monitor. The signal strength in most of the downstairs is full strength and there is no interference with the wireless internet (not sure about cordless phones yet... we just ordered some). It did have interference with my cell phone when its on the nightstand too but I turn it off at night anyway so not a deal breaker.
3. It has a voice activation feature where instead of having the sound on all night (which means you hear ever gurgle the baby makes, the hum of his fan, hum of the speaker, etc), it turns on when the baby cries/makes a louder noise. I LOVE THIS FEATURE because I don't really need to hear every noise and don't sit and listen for DS breathing. I can turn on the video screen and see his chest raising if I want to check. The voice activation also solves the popping problem because the speaker doesn't stay on all night, only when he cries. LOVE IT.
4. It has zoom so we can put the monitor far enough back to see the whole crib but zoom in if I want to see him closer (its not the best picture in zoom but like i mentioned, I can see his chest raising up and down and thats all I need)
It does have some quirks... the volume control has a beep when you change the volume up or down... but its not an indicator of the volume level. Its just annoying... if you try to change the volume in the middle of the night, you are sure to wake your husband
The battery also drains quick (but both camera and receiver can be battery operated which is nice if you go to a friends house or something) but for me, thats not a big deal since at night, its plugged in next to my bed. It has an alarm if the battery gets too low or the signal is lost for more than a second or two so that you know its not working... the alarms are annoying but I think they are a good safety feature at the same time so you don't go all night thinking its working when its not.
We also have the Summer Night and Day but right now we're only using it when she naps in her crib. My SIL did use it one night when she stayed over to take baby duty and said it worked great.
It does get a little staticy but every single product I researched had reviewers that said it got static - I think it's just the nature of the beast and depends on each person's house. Our static isn't too bad but it is annoying. We'll see how we like it when we're sleeping with it on our nightstand.
I have one and I love it. Cooper talks in his sleep and it wakes me up if I'm not sleeping hard. It's so nice to be able to look at the screen and realize he's still asleep without having to get out of bed.
We have the Summer Day & Night one.
I only had audio for DS1 but decided to get a video one for DS2, hoping it would help me be more comfortable with transferring him to his room and because his room is further down the hall. I got this one for just under $100 on Amazon at the time (watched the price fluctuate). It occasionally is crackly, but once I get it in a good spot/angle it's fine (doesn't crackle all night). It has definitely saved me from numerous trips up the stairs to check on DS2
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-Handheld-Monitor-Screen/dp/B0007OD8SU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1273285624&sr=8-1