Stupid baby monitor question...

MauiBride2008 · March 2011

We just bought our baby monitor over the weekend and were fiddling around with it to see how the angle of everything works.

My stupid question is, are you supposed to make sure the entire mattress is showing on the monitor or just the area where LO is sleeping? We tried to put it on the wall, but the further away you place it to get the whole mattress area in the screen, you can't really see LO that well it seems. I feel like I'm not getting it right.

Where did you hang your camera and how did you focus it? (If I'm even making sense here). Unfortunately, MH didn't want to pay the extra $$ for the pan and zoom monitor...

MauiWedding08 · March 2011

you can always move it. We only used it for naps when LO was really small but at that point I had it zip tied to the crib (there was no close furniture and I didn't want to drill it to the wall in such an obvious location).

Once he got older and could stand up and would have messed with it I drilled it to the wall above the closet and have a better view of the entire crib but don't need to see the small details like his breaths or binky. These days I just use it to see if he's settling down to sleep (since I put him down awake he usually pops up to stand for a while and then crawls around before snuggling down).

MrsIH · March 2011

I think the whole mattress showing is okay. I can see 3/4 of our mattress from our monitor but we do have a zoom on ours. The zoom is handy if I can't tell if his eyes are quite open or not. We have ours mounted on the wall at the foot of the crib... our crib is a couple feet from the wall. HTH?

MauiWedding08 · March 2011

MrsIH:
I can see 3/4 of our mattress from our monitor but we do have a zoom on ours.

If your LO is anything like mine, in a few short months he will decide that unseen 1/4 is the most comfy

J always snuggles his head into the 3 inches of one corner that are obscured and then I have to worry that his blanket is too close to his nose (we just started letting him fall asleep with one since he likes to rub it between his fingers).

MauiBride2008 · March 2011

MauiWedding08:

MrsIH:
I can see 3/4 of our mattress from our monitor but we do have a zoom on ours.

If your LO is anything like mine, in a few short months he will decide that unseen 1/4 is the most comfy

This is what I'm afraid our LO would do...if he is anything like his father and onry in that nature

Thanks for the tips! Glad I'm not the only not getting the whole mattress on the non-zooming monitor. And glad to hear I don't have to focus on just his face either.

I tried to sell the zooming monitor like Tara's to MH, but he never wants to fork out the extra $$$

inamra · March 2011

We actually use a webcam for our baby monitor and it's only about 2 feet away at about 4o'clock (angle) from the crib and it can get most of the crib at that angle. It only misses a few crevices blocked by the corner posts but it's not much bigger than whatever part of is body (sometimes eyes) that's blocks by a rail, which is hard to control. I can tell if he's sleeping by how he breathes/moves/sucks his pacifier in his sleep vs whether his eyes are closed (he fakes closes them anyway and cries as soon as I leave the room--remember sanhawaii's post about "the memo"? that's why B does--, so I stopped trusting the eyes!)

mrspresley · March 2011

when she was itty bitty i just put the camera on the crib railing. there was part of it that was nice and wide and it was perfect for the monitor. before she could roll i just had it positioned to where i could see the area of the crib where i put her down.

when she got more mobile i just repositioned it to where i could see most of it but not all but that wasn't an issue b/c she wasn't that mobile and was just rolling back and forth

once she was able to stand up i had to move the monitor off the crib railing b/c she realized how fun it was to yank it down i wasn't sure where to put it b/c like you said, it's hard to get a view of the entire crib from anywhere... i thought about getting a corner shelf and putting it up there (our crib is in the corner of the room) but in the end i actually just angled our wooden shutters so they could act like a shelf and the camera sits right there. it's not ideal b/c we to leave the shutters exactly as they are or the camera will fall down but it does the job and we didn't have to buy a shelf or anything. i have it just high enough to where i can see most of the crib except for one corner (the one closest to the camera) and it's close enough (just a few inches from the crib - just far enough that she can't pull it down) that i can still see if her eyes are open or not or if she is breathing although at this age i don't really worry about SIDS anymore and like Robbi said, it's more for me to see if she is settling down or not or still playing after i put her down

MrsIH · March 2011

MauiWedding08:
MrsIH:
I can see 3/4 of our mattress from our monitor but we do have a zoom on ours.
If your LO is anything like mine, in a few short months he will decide that unseen 1/4 is the most comfy

Hehe... well we can adjust ours no problem... I guess it's just how we have it positioned at the moment He doesn't squirm much yet but when he does we'll have to adjust the camera a bit.

ETA: I forgot we can adjust our camera from the handheld unit so we can see him regardless of where he is... we just don't have to move it very often.

MauiBride2008 · March 2011

mrspresley:

when she was itty bitty i just put the camera on the crib railing. there was part of it that was nice and wide and it was perfect for the monitor. before she could roll i just had it positioned to where i could see the area of the crib where i put her down.

when she got more mobile i just repositioned it to where i could see most of it but

This is a great idea, I didn't think about that! It's not like he will pull the cord or knock it down so this is good for a temporary deal. I just don't want to drill anything in the wall either so I will need to get creative like you did.

Thanks ladies!

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