Do I REALLY NEED a monitor???

[nywifey]

I have a fisher price baby monitor that I'm really considering whether to return it or not. We live in a 6 room apartment and I'm thinking if the baby cries, I'm going to hear it. Our room is only a few feet from the baby's (two bathrooms and a closet between them).

I've heard from moms that they actually turn the monitors off at night since they can't sleep with the humming of the device or that they jump to see the baby at every little noise they make and realize they and the baby are not getting a good nights rest.

Is a monitor really necessary for apartment living or is it more suitable for two family homes?

Thanks in advance.

[Megieblue]

It's not necessary at all. We also live in a small house and I can hear the baby cry anywhere anytime. I was given a monitor when i had my son and I found that I always turned it off at night because I couldn't sleep when I heard every sigh he made in his sleep. The only time I've used the monitor is when we've traveled and stayed places where my son may be more of a distance from us.

Certainly not worth the investment unless you have a large home or garden a lot.

[vkmom]

When my daughter wakes up, she does not make a noise. So-I wouldn't know when she wakes unless I have the monitor that picks up her movement. Think it will depend on your baby. HTH.

[suzska]

I didn't get mine until a "Welcome Baby" party when my son was about 3 weeks old. I used mine for a little time, until I was comfortable with a baby in the house, if you know what I mean. Mine started getting some bad interference, and I was never able to track down the cause. I partly stopped using it because of that--I couldn't hear anything anyway (except static) with the volume turned all the way up. I decided I didn't really need one, and didn't want to spend the money on finding one that worked better. I thought it would be useful if I went outside while the baby was sleeping, but I never did that anyway. Our room is a short distance away from my son's room, so it's easy for one of us to hear him. And his room is directly above our TV room, and I can usually hear him from below (we call him "Thumpy" because you can hear him thump the mattress as he rolls around in the crib now, and I usually can tell when he's about to wake up).

Some people swear by monitors, but I'm not so sure they're that necessary. Have you tried it out yet? You should be able to hear someone breathing if they're close enough to it, I would think. You might want to try it out, if you haven't already, and see what you think about the humming (at night--very different background noises from the daytime) and such.

--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01

[APG]

I live in an apartment as well. We never use the monitor at home. In my experience, people in apartments rarrely use their monitors, whereas people in house use them all the time. We have a monitor for when we stay at someone's house overnight.