baby monitor advice please! Being induced next week...so I think I need one asap

[salt101]

hello all
need some advice re baby monitors. Just been told we are being induced next week and need to get a few things in. Paranoid mother of first baby, so think I might feel better if I have one of these!

I really want the BT 150 but can't get it anywhere- seems to be out of stock. I've tried online such as amazon, john lewis, babymonitors direct, ebay and gumtree (but don't trust them!).

Any thoughts on where I could get one, or if I even need on in the first few weeks? We have a two bed flat- quite small so I suppose we might be able to manage without.

thanks!
x

We got the Tommee Tippee one with a sensor, got it from Amazon. I found the sensor really reassuring, PFBish of me I know and it was a PITA when we'd pick her up and forget to turn it off but it did wonders for my mental health.

We didn't get it for a couple of weeks, though - not until DP went back to work and I sank all my anxiety about coping on my own into having a monitor. We still use the sound bit (DD is 9.5mths now) - although we could certainly hear her if she actually needed us!

You won't need one. The baby should be in with you anyway for the 1st 6 months and then you'll find you'll probably here him/her anyway. I think you really only need monitors if you have an upstairs. We're in a flat too and I could here DD better without the monitor.

hear

Ears are good enough - especially in a flat (or open plan house)

We bought one during first pg...but TBH wsa only ever useful if DTDs were in nursery and we were in kitchen (v rare). Didn't even use it for DD3

Just leave doors ajar - a bit of background noise is good for babies anyway as they get used to it - otherwise you are still creeping around when they are 5 cos the slightest sound wakes them.

I bought one shortly after dd1 was born and we too were in a 2bed flat. We used it for a while if she was in bed and we were in living room and when she was in her own room and we were in ours but tbh we usually heard her over the monitor - and she wasnt even a load crier.

Dont waste your money - though if you insist you want one I am about to put one on ebay (very trusted seller - 100% feedback). Not the one you mentioned. I think its a fisher price, the bit that goes in babies room has a light projector on it and it plays lovely soothing music.

We have been waiting on the BT 150 too! Amazon now have it back in stock if you decide to get one.

We have the BT one. It's fab and has a huge range. I needed a new one as we left ours behind somewhere and John Lewis said they were waiting for the new design. Think we got ours online rom BT.
But I really wouldn't get one yet. You will definately hear a newborn in a 2 bed flat!
Our DD is 15 months and if we have the TV on in the evening we can't hear her upstairs so we use it then but for at least the first few weeks we never needed one.

You shouldn't need it at first as others have said but I have the basic BT one (100?) and it's fine. Honestly you really don't want a million tunes anyway which I think is the only difference. I live in a 2 bed flat and my room is at the front and my DS is at the back. Because of fire doors, I can't hear him without a monitor.

thank you for all your advice! I feel much better about it!

x

We have the basic one (about £50?). My friend has the more fancy one with the temperature gizmo and it drives her mad as always bleeping when the room is technically too hot or cold when there's nothing she can do about it anyway.

I think they are useful if you have got the TV on, its not so easy to hear in our house. However, you don't need anything fancy. Ours was about £10 second hand on ebay. The sound quality isn't that great, but you only need it to be good enough. There are also lights on it so when she is singing herself to sleep we don't need to listen I really don't think any other functionality is needed. There seem to be a lot of opportunities to waste money on baby stuff.

Indeed, Jim McKenna (see here www.nd.edu/~jmckenn1/lab/arrangements.html and here www.nd.edu/~jmckenn1/lab/index.html ) suggests turning the monitor around so the baby can hear you...

"Some parents find it comforting to put some kind of walkie-talkie in the room, which is fine, except that a more appropriate use of the walkie-talkie talkie would be to turn the amplifiers around. That is pump family noise into the baby's room, letting the baby monitor the parents and siblings, rather than the other way around."

CB

cheesebaby - that is the fab thing about the BT one - you can talk to the baby. Having said that, mine loathes it at the moment but it's really good with older children so you can have two way communication

We had an angel care alarm ( one of the pressure mattress ones ) and it was great, money well spent.