Video baby monitors-Need recommendations

[Daddy2Be]

My wife wants to purchase a video baby monitor with the handheld color tv's, which the BRU near us does not carry. I've seen some one the Net but wondered if anyone has purchased these and has any recommendations. They're awefully expensive, around $199, so if anyone knows of any bargains, that'd be great info too. Thanks!

[jd11365]

I got the Summer one for $99 bucks at BRU...they sell one with one camera which is cheaper than the ones w/ 2 cameras. We still use it and love to watch how she puts herself to sleep at night...building a little nest w/ her blankets...too cute!

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
May '03

[Daddy2Be]

Thanks for the info! I wonder, does the one you purchased come with a color monitor that's handheld, like those small LCD tv's? The one by Summer that I saw at our BRU is a black and white unit that's bulkier. Otherwise, $99 would be a great deal!

[jd11365]

It's B&W. I haven't heard great things about the handhelds...from what I remember...though this was over a year ago...they got poor reception and were hard to see.

The Summer IMO has good night vision and was a good bang for the buck. Honestly, you don't need color because your purpose is to see if the baby is ok...you're not really looking for specifics. I will tell you, it would be lovely to have color, don't get me wrong, but for a good deal that serves it's purpose, the Summer is a very good product.

Oh, and the monitor has never left our nightstand. It's not something we really keep on because once they're sleeping there's not much to look at. You are waiting for noise...then if you want you can look at the monitor to see what's going on. This is helpful when sleep training and when they get older and they wake more easily if you want to go in and check on them at the end of the night.

There is a button at the top to turn the video part off but keep the sound on at night. Otherwise the bright light from the monitor will keep you up. So if you hear something you press the little button on the top and the video turns on. The sound is very sensitive...too sensitive for me and especially now as a toddler she rustles all through the night and it wakes me up...so I use the regular monitor for sound now and if I want to see what's going on I hit the button on the top and presto baby!

BTW, we originally bought the one that you can view on any television in the house...which would make it color...but w/ cable, DVD, vcr all plugged in, we couldn't hook it up. The price for that one was $169 or $199 I believe. You might check into that one. Personally, I'd do what we did...get the $99 one and use the extra $ for a good sound monitor too. That one is handheld and easier to tote around if necessary. And again, once you hear something on the little monitor you can go to the video to check in...

HTH!

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
May '03

[Daddy2Be]

Thanks! I didn't think about that, I guess we really wouldn't need color. I like the fact that there's the button you can push to turn it on/off. I'll check that one out again.

[suburbanmommy]

If you are set on a video monitor, that is okay. However, given that it is so costly, and everything else you will purchase for your baby is so costly, maybe you could skip it and set up what we have (and honestly I didn't consider cost when we thought to do this). My house is rather large and I rarely even needed the regular monitor -- babies are very loud (so loud that I took mine to the doctor in the first few weeks to figure out what all of the noises were (thankfully they're normal).

Nevertheless, my husband and I found ourselves constantly going into our DD's nursery to make sure everything was okay. I still do that at least once a night and she is now 11 months old, but after we purcased the Bebe Movement monitor we were a lot calmer. This $50 monitor is basically a sheet about 1/4 inch thick that goes under the baby's mattress. It detects movement (breathing) every 20 seconds and if it does not, sounds an alarm. We haven't (thankfully) had any terrifying false alarms, though it has gone off when our DD moved way into the corners of her crib and off of the mat. We were happy to simply move her back into the center. We rarely use our baby monitor at night because we know (1) we can hear her and (2) the alarm will sound if there were g-d forbid a problem.

Believe me I understand your desire to have the TV monitor. I'm a stay at home mommy and my DD is with me 24/7 essentially. I am and was a very anxious mommy, but the Bebe Movement monitor calmed me down enough to get a good night's sleep. I wouldn't have wanted the TV monitor (except to see cuteness) because I think I would have stayed up all night staring at her. After all, there is nothing more special and precious than our babies! With the movement monitor, we get sleep. Hope this helps.

P.S. The Movement monitor flashes a green light every 10-20 seconds to let you know that it is working. We set this up so that we can see the light flash from our bedroom without going into the nursery and waking the baby.

[DeeEast]

Ours is a Safety 1st B&W video monitor that we registered for and got at BRU. LOVE IT! Don't know how we would live without it. One of the very best things we got/have for the baby. We use it during the day downstairs and during the night in our bedroom. The picture is clear and the night vision is incredible. The sound isn't so great so at night we turn the volume down on it and turn the volume up on the regular sound monitor.

Buy one. You won't regret it and you'll wonder how people do without them. There have been times where we have seen DD get her hand caught in the crib rails even though she's sleeping. There have been other similar incidents. Love it.