baby monitor?

erin8606

H has been in charge of looking up baby monitor stuff to decide what to get. He's been pretty put off by a lot of the reviews suggesting that the batteries are completely dead and the device unusable within a year. So he's starting to think maybe we don't need one. I guess he asked 2 coworkers yesterday if they are worthwhile and they were saying no.

So I am wondering if we should still get a baby monitor or not. I figure that they will help us hear the baby at night or if we are around the house doing something. What say you guys. Are they useful or no? Is there a product that you would recommend? For the record, we live in a one-story open floor plan house but with 1 room and bathroom between our bedroom and the baby's room and the baby's room is right off the living room.

Hey Jellisy

We live in a split level and with the exception of when we are doing laundry or I am outside gardening, I can hear the baby cry. We did have the LOs room in with us the first few months (till the first mostly slept through the night at 10 weeks - the second we moved before he STTN)  I've never had problems waking up in the middle of night.  We do sleep with doors open to aid and abet this.   We do have a cheap monitor (it came free with some purchase) that I use if I am going outside at nap time to do yard work, but I only really used that when they were infants and their napping was less regular.

I love the video monitors though.  I can't justify buying one, but I think it is so cool when I am other people's houses.  It's really fun to spy on the baby.

If you are unsure or someone does not buy it off your registry, wait till after the baby comes to make your decision.  If you find yourself wanting one, then it is an easy fix.   

victoria1212

Our video monitor is definitely in the top 3 baby items that we needed the most. We have used it everyday since we got home from the hospital. DD's room is right next to our but she was a super noisy sleeper and it was nice to be able to look at the monitor instead of going to her room every time. Even now, she talks in her sleep.

RomeRomance06

I think this does depend on the layout of your house and your parenting "style." I have a coworker who ditched her monitor completely when the baby was 3 mo and I have used my video monitor every day. I could not sleep with DD in our room at all, so she went to her crib right next door to our room at 2 weeks. The video monitor was great because she was noisy and so young, it was nice to check on her without having to go into her room and possibly wake her up. Now, I just use it mainly for entertainment value. Ha. I do like to watch her settle herself to sleep and when we did CIO, it helped ease my mind that she was OK and I didn't NEED to go in and check on her. So, it totally depends. We've had ours for 7 months and it's still working fine. We keep it plugged in by our beds every night and just use the battery during naps on the weekends and at night before we go to bed, so I haven't had too many issues with battery life. We'll see what happens when we've had it a year. But many parents have lived just fine without video monitors, or any monitors, so it really depends on what you need for your own peace of mind, I guess.

vtkgirl77

I have a sound monitor for DD#1 and a video monitor for DD#2. I use both of them almost everyday but part of it is due to the layout of our house and the fact that I wouldn't be able to hear either of them in certain rooms (like when we watch TV in the family room and when I work-out in the basement). Also, even though DD#1 is 2.5 years old, I still like to "monitor" her room at night...especially now that she is in her big girl bed and can get out and start roaming around. We sleep with white noise in our room at night so we wouldn't necessarily hear DD#1 if she got up in the night.

I would say that if you aren't sure, to at least get a sound monitor. The video monitors are nice but the sound monitors serve the basic purpose of being able to hear if something happens and respond accordingly. I think my monitor was only $30 and had two receivers. We never use them with the batteries because we just keep one plugged in in our bedroom and one in the family room. We had the Graco Ultra Clear II but I think they stopped selling them.

AgrippaRidesAgain

We didn't use a monitor with DS and never had any problems hearing him even in our two story house. We did get a sound monitor for DD, but only so that we could get to her before she woke DS at night. I think it may have hindered consistent STTN with her though, b/c I could hear her and respond earlier than with ds instead of her learning to settle herself during nighttime wakings.

Sofka

We need monitors, we have dogs so we close all the doors to all the rooms so they don't roam around and we use white noise in our room as well as the kids' rooms.

We had only an audio for DD and got a video for DS, we put it in DD's room before DS was born and LOVED it; that 1st night we kept pausing the DVR to watch her, it was fascinating. I think if we had a video monitor w/ DD, she might've slept better. If the baby is crying but not standing up/walking around, then I know he'll fall asleep soon. I think b/c I didn't have the video w/ DD, many times I went in and actually interrupted her putting herself to sleep.  Of course, it's a luxury, you can survive well w/out it but now that we have 2 video monitors, we can't live w/out them.

WinesNot Whines

We have a sound monitor, and I would say that we need it, but our house is several levels and the baby's room is on the top floor. If I'm on the main floor, I can't hear him unless he's screaming full-out, and I try not to wait until he gets to that point! We only have a sound monitor though, not a video one. I couldn't justify the cost of video, and there are a lot of mixed reviews about the video monitors crapping out after a year. We've had our monitor (Sony Baby Call) since M was born and it's still going strong.

tomandcourt

I would definitely recommend a video monitor. It's really helpful when you're having sleep issues, because you can hear the baby crying and also see--sometimes you can tell that they're just moving around, and other times you can tell that they need comforting.

Plus, if you're like me and you need to know how much sleep they're really getting, it's a good way to tell when they actually fall asleep (vs laying in their beds rolling around). 

mcatmay

Sofka:

We need monitors, we have dogs so we close all the doors to all the rooms so they don't roam around and we use white noise in our room as well as the kids' rooms.

 We have a very similar situation - two dogs and a two story house. I definitely need the monitor to be able to tell what's going on. It's also taught me a lot about my little girl's sleep - what is just 'talking' versus 'mom, i need you to come in'. We keep ours plugged in to our bedside at night but during the day i lean on the battery when she goes down for a nap. We have this monitor:

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-AVENT-Basic-Monitor-Technology/dp/B001COIH3A/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1320974592&sr=1-1-catcorr

I love it! no interference and, so far, no problems, but we've only been using it for three months.  

mommmyz

Our video monitor is definitely in my top 5 purchases. It was never on our registry, we just had an audio one and I saw no need for video. Then we got a big gift card from DH's office when DS was about a month old and decided to get a video monitor. LOVE it, for all of the reasons stated above, but espeically for sleep training/is is really awake/okay/stuck/etc. We have a Summer Infant Sleek and Secure and have used it for 2 years now. The battery did get recalled at one point, but they sent us a new one within 5 days when I registered on their website. It isn't perfect, we have had wireless interference issues (though a new router helped), but it's good enough that we'll be getting a second camera for baby #2's room.

bh2720

RomeRomance06:

I think this does depend on the layout of your house and your parenting "style." I have a coworker who ditched her monitor completely when the baby was 3 mo and I have used my video monitor every day. I could not sleep with DD in our room at all, so she went to her crib right next door to our room at 2 weeks. The video monitor was great because she was noisy and so young, it was nice to check on her without having to go into her room and possibly wake her up. Now, I just use it mainly for entertainment value. Ha. I do like to watch her settle herself to sleep and when we did CIO, it helped ease my mind that she was OK and I didn't NEED to go in and check on her. So, it totally depends. We've had ours for 7 months and it's still working fine. We keep it plugged in by our beds every night and just use the battery during naps on the weekends and at night before we go to bed, so I haven't had too many issues with battery life. We'll see what happens when we've had it a year. But many parents have lived just fine without video monitors, or any monitors, so it really depends on what you need for your own peace of mind, I guess.

all of this, but especially the bolded.

we have used out video monitor pretty much every day for the past 2.5 years...basically ever since we moved him to his crib at 3 weeks old.

about 6 months ago the battery life was basically down to nothing, so it had to be plugged in all the time, but I finally got around to ordered a new battery ($10 on Amazon) and it's back to working great without being plugged in.

we loooooove our video monitor. it's definitely one of the most useful things we spent money on.

 

KelXoXo

We have a sound monitor, and if our house was laid out like yours, I probably wouldn't use it often, but there have been many times that I've stepped out on the front step to visit with a neighbor, gone out in the yard with the dogs, or wante dto clean stuff out of my car, and having a monitor was so helpful to know if she woke up - so I'd probably  buy a used model at a consignment or on Craigslist.