Is a baby monitor strictly necessary?

[naturelover]

The reason I ask is that there are so many things to buy and my mother's generation didn't have half of them and managed just fine. Our house is small with paper-thin walls so I figure I'd hear if baby got upset.

we had one and never ever used it as we were in a flat and heard everything.
you can always buy one later if you find you need it

we used ours for dd1 but not at all for dd2 - it is up in a cupboard, gathering dust!

as you say, you will hear things you need to!

No, its not. In the early days you might find it reassuring on the basis that you will definitely hear when baby wakes / cries. Having said that, we still use it with DD (3) most especially if we have closed all doors between us.

I didnt have one with dd as could here everything from anywhere in the uose.
Had one with DS as couldnt here anything from room to room, nevermind upsatirs and downstairs.

Will use one this time too as this house is the same.

We use one but the other day realised we really don't need to as you can hear everything in our house (even our neighbours can hear when DS wakes up!). It can be reassuring, e.g. if you turn it up to maximum volume you can often hear him breathing, but definitely not a necessity, esp as in the early days you tend to keep the baby in the same room as you anyway.

didnt have one, didnt need one
dh bought one when we moved from a flat to here in case we couldnt hear upstairs, but we can so its in the cupboard as it buzzes annoyingly the time we tried it
i told him not to buy it!
i would def wait and see they are so easy to come buy if you do find you want one

We have them for both our 2 but then our house is big and I wouldn't hear them even if they were screaming their heads off. I wouldn't bother if you'd hear them without one.

We bought a reconditioned one from Amazon for a third of the price as new. I'm not convinced I'm going to need it anyway...

We've got a two-way one which is completely coming into its own now ds is two. We can sit on the sofa watching telly and just talk into the monitor - "ssh ssh its all right go back to sleep", "get back into bed now!", "don't make me come up there!". Its great.

Also never underestimate your future paranoia levels. Being able to check that they were still breathing by listening in on the monitor saved me many a trip upstairs.

It was also useful when we had friends round, cos we'd have music on and everyone talking, and then you can't hear the baby till its screaming its head off, which may be a bit late. And in PIL's huge tall house. And on holiday. And when they're not well and its nice to know if the faint cough you can hear is actually the beginning of them copiously throwing up everywhere.

i bought one for my ds and it too is still in the box..... you will probably have ur baby in your room for the first few months so i wouldnt fret about having a monitor, babies are loud so theres no way u wont be able to hear the little cherub

no. a friend insisted on lending us one and we never used it.

I"ve not used the monitor for dd3 at all - she moved into her own room at about 6 months, was sleeping through the night at that point so didn't feel we needed it. although was more laziness on my part to actually find it and sort out the plugs and rechargable batteries!

Our's is still in the box too!
First time round we lived in a fairly large 3 bedroom house and even the other end of the house I could here her wake up, female intuition is a wonderful thing LOL

i can hear if DS cries so never needed one. Bought one for use on holiday but hardly used it.

Good for eavesdropping, eg when your child sits and talks to herself, or when your dh sings to her which he won't do with other people around

I'd say they come into the 'not necessary but quite nice to have' category.

Did with DD1 and she has sleeping problem (i think because of the monitors) DD2 never used them and she is a model baby.

Never had one for both DDs. DD1 slept with us until 15 months DD2 for 12 months. Even downstairs with the TV you can still hear if one of them is up.

we had one for dd- secondhand from my sister.

Used it until very recently (she's now 5), as when she was younger she would get very wheezy with a cold. She could be wheezy but still asleep, and I wanted to know about it asap, so I could get her ventolin inhaler out and try to avert the attack.

But for that we probably wouldn't have used it.

Look here

freepage.twoday.net/stories/1677124/

dont know how much truth there is in this but i would say if you can do without one, then do.

Depends on your house. I gave mine away before I had DS to a friend who lives in a townhouse. I didn't miss it in my cubic semi.

I got a cheap one off Ebay, and I like it, I have to say. It's great when you want to be out in the garden in the evenings, after dc's have gone to bed.

Our next door neighbours had a BBQ the other night and we were able to go as it still worked at that distance.

I agree with Kathy, they are in the nice to have but not essential category.

You can pick them up cheaply second hand though.

depends on your house - we live in quite a big old house with thick walls & solid doors (which we keep shut to keep the cats out of the bedrooms) so TBH we would never hear DD without a monitor.

If you live in a small newer house with plasterboard walls you can probably manage without one.

You don't need one.

We're not having one-we have a one bed flat so we can hear everything from every room in the house! I guess I'd get one if we had a couple of floors or a big house but not strictly necessary.
x

Its definately something you could leave until after the birth and get it if you need it.

We live in a small house and can hear him without but found that we were straining to hear and turing off the telly which is't relaxing - it was easier for us to have one so we could switch off a bit. Plus we got a paranoid parents one with a sensor mat. This was great aswe could see at a glance that he was fine and didn't need to go in and check on him which ALWAYS woke him up when he was tiny!