Baby Monitors: A Neccesity??

[aliceinwonderland]

Trying to decide if I need one or not. Baby will sleep in our room. We have a 2 bedroom apartment. No floors or anything like that, and our room is in the middle of it (between kitchen and living room).

What do you all think? Oh, I also have a pram with a full-size bassinet he can take naps in, if that makes a difference...
Thanks in advance. Counting down the days, and trying to figure out if I'm missing something essential!


eri and the bean, due April 19th :)

[s_gosney]

I probably wouldn't worry about it. We are in a similar situation and haven't used our monitor at all. HTH!

[C99]

No, I don't think they are necessary. We didn't use either of ours (regular and video) for the first 5 months and only use the video monitor when we're on a different floor.

[JustMare]

Eri,

I thought I wouldn't need one either, but we use it all the time now.

I also live in a two bedroom apt. DS's room is in the front of the building and our bedroom is in the rear with 2 bathrooms in between them in the hall.

In the begining, DS slept in our room but wasn't comfortable in his cradle. He's a stretcher. He likes to have lots of room when he sleeps. He was in his crib by 3 weeks old. We were nervous at first, but thankfully had the monitors to hear every little peep he made.

The monitors were very helpful in the early weeks when your lacking sleep. I used to not hear him cause I'd fallen into such a deep sleep. I'd have the monitor on loud and thankfully would hear his cries.

I would see how it goes and if necessary purchase an inexpensive Fisher Price model. You don't need anything fancy for an apt.

Plus, after the baby is born your'll get lots of gift cards and will have to return loads of ugly/unwanted presents to BRU. You can pick up the monitors then.

Lots of luck!

[Momof3Labs]

We have a four bedroom, two-story house and only use the monitor if we are going outside or to the basement while Colin is napping. When he was a newborn, we moved him into his room at about 5 weeks of age (his room is at the other end of the upstairs from ours) and still didn't use it. In fact, I preferred not to use it because all his little noises would wake me when it was on. I had NO problems hearing him cry, though, with or without the monitor!

[Marisa6826]

When Sophie arrived, we were living in a two bedroom condo (all on one floor).

I didn't think we would need it, especially since she slept in our room in a PnP the first 12w or so.

I found that it was quite handy when wanting to take a shower while she was napping, though.

I would register for one if only for that purpose and no other. It was also good if I wanted to run down and check the mail...

-m

[papal]

i don't think you will need it. The baby will shout/cry when it wants something and as a new parent you will be checking on the baby every 2 minutes in any case. Gadgets drive me crazy... one more thing to dust.. one more thing to buy batteries for.. one more user manual for me to file.. one more warranty card to fill.. one more thing to learn to use.. one more thing to drive me insane!!!! :)

[aliceinwonderland]

You sum up beautifully my recent frustration...what's with the paperwork, and DIFFERENT size batteries!! WHAAAA!!!

[barbarhow]

We moved from our 2 story house to a 2 br apt-one floor. I still use my video monitor. I keep it in the living room/kitchen area and love that I can always see what he is doing. When he stirs and cries a little I can watch him and see if he is really awake or just stirring. I know that if I didn't have it I would be in the room at a drop of a hat to check on him. In fact-last night when I looked at the monitor his socks looked a funny color to me. I went into his room to check it out and he had vomited everywhere-he never woke up. He socks were sopping wet which was why they looked funny. I was so glad that I checked him and didn't have to wait for him to become freezing cold from being soaked before I realized something was wrong.
I would feel lost without my monitor.
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03

[heidi_timms]

ITA with the deep sleep thing. Our room is right next to DD's room, but sometimes I'm in such a deep sleep that I don't hear her. Also, I like to shut her door so the dogs don't wake her with their loud noises!

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03

[AngelaS]

I'd pass. I'm not one who uses a moniter from the next room and I've NEVER used one at night.

[luvbeinmama]

When we had DS we were in a 2 bedroom apt with the bedroom doors across the little hall from each other. We didn't use a monitor and didn't need it. Now we are in a very long & narrow 3 bedroom house (1 story) and we only use our monitor when we are in the back room and can't hear her from there. We did use it when we moved her from the bassinette to her crib at night for a while, but realized after a while that we could hear her just fine without it. Her room is just up the hall from us. In your situation, I wouldn't bother.

[esianoyam3]

We bought one, and used it for maybe a week after DD started sleeping in her own room (about 3 weeks old).

She grunts and snores too much in her sleep, and we were getting up and checking on her for every little noise she made, and we weren't getting any sleep.

So we turned it off, and we can hear her just fine... Her bedroom is down the hall from us.

Of course, we'll be moving in a few months, and the floorplan of our new house is set up so that the "kids" bedrooms are on the other side of the house from the master bedroom, so we'll probably have to start using it at that point. Although, when DD wakes up, she cries loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood, so I guess we'll see...

[luvbeinmama]

DD is a noisy sleeper, too. Tune your monitor so that you can't hear the breathing/rustling, but can hear someone talking. Then mark that setting with a Sharpie so you can set it there every time. That worked for us, and allowed us to sleep.

[amp]

I don't think it's necessary, and if you do find that you wish you had one later, you can always go buy it then. We have a small 2 story house. We can hear most everything without the monitor. We do use it if we are working on the basement or playing music in the kitchen or outside in the yard. That's it. Otherwise, we can hear if DS wakes up.

[hobey]

The paperwork didn't bug me but the different battery sizes were extremely annoying! Every time we put something together, we had to run out and get more batteries. I was starting to suspect a Baby Equipment/Battery Mfg Cartel.

We have both an audio & video monitor. We only use the audio monitor now that Nathan has moved from our room to his own room.

Raquel
Nathan's Mom 12/19/03