Baby monitors/smart tech and anxiety

So what do you do if baby goes to sleep before you go to bed? Go to bed early? Or put him/her down in the living room, and carry them up with you when you go to bed?

We've found a monitor with a camera useful for our DC. I think the breathing sensors are only useful if specifically recommended by a paediatrician in specific circumstances. I don't think the ordinary monitors which claim to monitor breathing/EEG etc have been put through medical trials to see if they actually do what they claim. And they seem quite prone to "false alarms", invoking serious anxiety for parents. Don't do it!

You're right, although even one with a camera on is a little OTT. We got a simple BT audio only one when our son moved into his own room, as we have a 3 storey house so his room is above our room (on the middle floor) so when we are downstairs in particular we wouldn't hear him.

Part of the pregnancy and parenting journey is learning that you don't need all of the stuff the marketeers want you to think that you need. My son was such a wriggle bum in his sleep from birth that any sock/cap/whatever would have come straight off so we'd have been forever thinking he had died.

Ideally you should aim to get an EEG baby monitor. The little cap sits on baby's head at night and gives a continuous reading throughout the night and allows you to track baby's brainwaves. The output is converted to a warning light system and will alert you to a non normal pattern/ lack of REM.

As others have said, you don't need to worry about it any time soon as your baby should be sleeping in the same room as an adult for at least the first six months. Including naps.

After that... well, you might get one like mine who never slept alone anyway! We never needed anything beyond a basic audio-only one, because she was no longer a baby by the time she was spending any time sleeping alone. Not by a long shot. 🤣

I'd recommend not worrying about it for now, and seeing where you are a few months from now before making any purchases.

You don't need a camera baby should be in the same room at you at all times to protect from SIDS until 6 months old. We have a smart sock on our baby while we sleep even though she's in our room with us so we know that if she stops breathing in the night for any reason the alarm will wake us up and we can take action before it's too late. I'mm terrified of SIDS and this makes us feel safer and sleep easy at night.

We didn't have a monitor at all.

You don't need a camera at all. We used the most basic one we could get. Plugged into wall, audio only.

You don’t even need one with a camera. I wouldn’t call that “basic”. We didn’t have a baby monitor at all.

I didn’t get one of the breathing monitors because I knew how it would feel me out of there was a malfunction or something. Baby should be in your room for at least 6 months and then you can get a regular camera.

Personally I would feel a camera is way over the top!

Why not just get a normal one that you can hear the baby through?