New daddy of twins needs advice please

[TwinDaddyToBe]

Hi all,

We are expecting our 1st & 2nd (boys) in the Autumn and are obsessively trying to prepare.

I've read a lot of the forum posts on here but I'm still not totally clear on what's best practice and why so if people are able to please offer advice I'm all ears!

• What should we be looking for from a baby monitor?
• I see the value in having a video feed to your phone, but why do people choose to go for audio only?
• Are there things that you would effectively consider a Must Have in a baby monitor these days?
• Similarly, anything you consider an unnecessary nice to have that makes it unnecessarily expensive?
• Any specific brands/models specs that you would recommend a complete newbie?

Many thanks in advance!

[AmyOb]

Congratulations on the twins to come!
A baby monitor is actually useful when you need to climb out of your bed and wander across "just to check" on your baby every night or even day.
The most common type of baby monitor used by parents is an audio only monitor. These monitors pick up any sounds from the child's room and transmits them to the receiver monitor in another room, alerting the parents when the baby wakes up from a nap, or if someone else enters the room.
Some products are able to pay lullabies, and lets you communicate with your baby within a specific distance. BT Audio Baby Monitor 450 Lightshow is an example of such monitor.
Movement monitors are able to detect when the child moves throughout the night. There are also some products monitors your baby’s breathing. It alerts you if breathing is weak or less than eight breaths per minute. Such example is Snuza Hero MD Baby Breathing Monitor.

[welshweasel]

We have a Motorola video monitor. It doesn't rely on wifi which is useful if staying somewhere that doesn't have it. The video is great for seeing if baby is actually awake or just moaning in their sleep. Or as they get older to check if they are up to no good! Ours plays music but we've never used that function.

There's no evidence to support the use of monitors with breathing sensors but I know some people feel they give them peace of mind.

[NorthernLurker]

A basic audio monitor will pick up the sound of an older baby breathing and for the first few months you don't need a monitor as babies should really be in with you. Video is a nice to have but audio is adequate.

[MuffyDoon]

Sounds like you're just doing research for a product you're working on!

[TwinDaddyToBe]

Thanks for this folks! And haha believe me I'm making no product, I can barely make beans on toast.
I'll go and check out the BT and Motorola ranges and see what grabs me.
Thanks again.

[user1490043295]

Firstly Congratulations. I am a twin mum of 3 year old boy and girl and we bought Motorola mbp26 twin pack. It was perfect for us as we could put the camera over each cot and be able to monitor them at night. Its not a wireless monitor but didn't feel the need to use wireless monitor. Also we transferred the twins to there own room at 3 months as having both of them in 1 cot was not ideal once they started moving so having the twin monitor gave me peace of mind

[lubdub]

Twins. They are utterly amazing. You will understand tiredness at another level.

Tricky thing with smart monitors is differentiating between two. You’re stuck with dumb for now.

Video fulfils our animal urge to be close. Sounds introduce a little extra guess work.

Since it’s hard to fathom why they’re crying in your arms half the time, either way they really only let you know that they’re not sleeping.

I understand this particular market well, so give me a shout if you need more information.

[pastabest]

I use the <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/SUNLUXY-Wireless-Digital-Monitor-Security/dp/B016BNPTR8?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">sunluxy video monitor and have found it works absolutely fine for what it is and is significantly cheaper than similar models.

[Pennywhistle]

Our twins are 9 yo now and things have moved on some in terms of monitors.

We had an audio only monitor and that was fine. We mostly used it to make sure we could hear them when we were downstairs with the TV on.

I'm not sure a video would have been anymore useful really, if they cry you go and check.

To be honest you don't sleep anywhere near as deeply (particularly Mothers) after you have kids so pretty much as soon as they cried I was awake and moving.


I suspect any stress about the monitor is a way to sublimate stress about having twins. which is completely normal.

I'd advise finding your local twins club (check the TAMBA website) the members there will be happy to chat and recommend stuff.

Twins are tiring but awesome.

[Orangebird69]

I love the Tommee Tippee video monitor. I didn't use the breathing sensor mat thing (too many false alarms and all a bit 'after the horde has bolted' imo) but the video is fab. My ds sleeps in my bed (always has done) so when he started rolling/crawling etc it was handy to be able to see if he was about to fall off the bed or not without going into the room and risk waking him. Plus, I could zoom in and watch his chest rise and fall or just stare at his beautiful face . Congrats!