Baby monitors - essential? Video or just sound?

[Cloud10]

Hi all,
I'm getting close to due date so spending lots of time looking at extra things to buy, most of which we probably don't need! So are baby monitors an essential in the beginning? I know the baby is meant to be with you for the first 6 months anyway so do you need one? If so, is video worth the extra? I'm guessing so for the reassurance? I'm thinking of getting one with movement detection but not sure if this will work with a cocoonababy, does anyone know? Thankyou!

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We had one for DCs 1 and 2 because they were twins and not in our room.

DC3 we haven't bothered - he's in a bedside cot at night and if he wakes after his nap and I'm not in the room during the day I hear him burbling fairly quickly.

In summary - prob not worth it if you will be close by your baby most of the time. If you want to have a bit more independence and leave him in his own room early on, then yes, worth it.

Initially no you won't need it. Its only once they start going to bed before you or you put them in a different room you need it.

I started out with a cheap sound one but once DS was napping upstairs on his own, I had some problems. Firstly he always had a little whine (not cry) as he went to sleep, but would make the same whiney sound if he didn't want to go to sleep (he rarely cried at that age, and if he did reach the point of crying he was extremely distressed) - so it could be difficult to distinguish if I should leave him or check on him. Then once he'd had his nap and woke up he played with his teddy in total silence (admittedly I don't know another child who has done this), so I never knew whether he was still napping or awake. For those reasons I got a video monitor - now I couldn't be without it. Its also going to come in handy when he moves down a floor soon (3storey house), so I don't have to worry about him going off playing in other rooms, as I will be able to see where he is.

Oh and movement sensors - my DS could wriggle from one end of the cotbed to the other at 9 weeks (the reason we moved him out of Moses basket was because he was wriggling into the top of it constantly through the night). This would have meant him repeatedly setting the alarm off on the sensor through wriggling off the pad.

We have just an audio one. We're considering a video / movement sensor one but were given the audio only one by a relative so figured we'd start with that and buy a better one if necessary. We've used it about four times! (Baby 6 months and been in her own room since 4 weeks.)

We just don't seem to have a use for it. Daytime naps are usually cuddles after a feed. If she's in her cot upstairs while I'm down and she decides she's not happy, believe me I can hear her! (Ok our house isn't massive, pretty standard 3 bed semi, but solid brick interior walls so not like it's made of tissue paper.) At night, in her own room next to ours, I can hear her if she has a little whimper, if she's thumping her legs up and down, if she farts... and I can definitely hear her cry! I figured she doesn't need my running in to her unless she's crying or she'll never get in the habit of self settling. Having the monitor on just seemed to give me something to worry over, rather than doing anything useful.

*We were considering

I delegated the choosing of monitors to my husband, who is a tech nut. We ended up with a nappy movement monitor (Snuza Hero) and a video monitor (Summer Infant). We only use the Snuza at night, and the monitor when she's having a nap or when she's been put down for the evening and we're downstairs.

I am delighted with both. The Snuza vibrates if she stops moving and beeps if it happens more than once in a set time. Because it's attached to the nappy, she can be put down anywhere (our bed, moses basket, her cot). And the video monitor means that we can see when she starts stirring and be there in time to soothe her back to sleep before she works herself up.

It's not a cheap solution but she's our PFB!

Good luck with the birth!

Thanks for all the advice! I guess it's a case of balancing the paranoia of not having one, with the paranoia of having one, and seeing which would be worse! It's my first so I think I will be paranoid either way, the snuza looks great though so might invest in one of those. We live in a 3 storey terrace so will get a proper sound one when the baby starts sleeping upstairs. Thanks all!

Just to add what we've found our (audio-only) monitor most useful for. I could usually hear DS without the monitor, so it wasn't so much that I'd miss it if he cried if I didn't have the monitor. But every time I heard the little girl next door cry, or one of the babies in the gardens down the road, or a baby crying in the background on TV, I would have been jumping up and going upstairs to DS. So having the monitor helped me know when it wasn't DS crying, if you see what I mean! And that helped me relax a bit more.

We had trouble deciding. In the end we went for a sound one only mainly because of the price and the fact that it would probably make us even more neurotic to have a video monitor. Besides we could do without one anyway because we live in a bungalow and I'm never more than a couple of rooms away and whilst I can just about hear dd I have slept through when exhausted so I need a really loud one!

I'm also finding the temperature function on the display very useful too.

I think if we had a bigger house,certainly one on 3 floors then I might have considered a video one.

I have just started leaving my 20 week old DS alone to sleep in the evenings, and a bit for daytime naps. He is now so alert he won't sleep in a room with people talking so it was this, sit in silence or all go to bed at 6pm! I have found the video monitor brilliant. Its an entry level one, but I have noticed it doesn't kick in untill he is properly crying. Using the video monitor I can see when he startes to stir, and get to him before he properly wakes up to resettle him, and still get a few jobs done in the evening or during naps. I love it, its been worth the price already over the past few weeks.

Got the basic Tomy one for about £35. We used it at home for the first couple of years, but it really came into its own when visiting the grandparents as they had bigger houses. It also meant grandma was happy win the knowledge lo was safe asleep & we could go to the pub! We don't use it now cos ds is so very loud we'd hear him if he needed us! Well get it out for the next one.

A friend had one with a camera but wished she hadn't as she felt she hadn't got used to understanding her kids noises as she always looked to the camera first.

We have a video one and find it really useful. DD often makes noise in the night (whining/grunting) and I think if we just had audio id be going in to her, but with the video monitor I can watch for a bit and see if she's just having a wriggle and if she'll settle down by herself. We've just got a cheap ish Motorola one and it does the job, although id have loved the one that connects to your iPhone .