Baby monitors - anyone who doesn't have one?

[RMW2]

what are peoples thoughts on NOT having a baby monitor, me and my partner live in a smallish house and so i dont feel the need for one, has anyone else gone without and managed just fine?

we don't have one, our house has 3 floors, & when the baby is asleep she's 2 floors away. i always hear her, it's never been a problem. actually, we do have one from when ds was a baby which he plays with now....

Yes and no... I used one for both DSs but leant it to someone so didn't have it for DD (4 months old). I missed it badly! It's OK if I was in the house but I couldn't go into the garden and also I relised I needed it when visiting my parents because of how their house is laid out and the volumme of their TV! I borrowed one from a friend and I'm much happier now :)

Never had one. Lived in small flat, then medium-sized house, then large house and always heard ds just fine

Haven't got one, had it for a couple of months but mainly, we could hear her! Had one for Precious First Born of course and used it even if I was a nano second away!

I have one but never used it with dd. We did live in a flat then. They do seem to be a bit of a nightmare and you either jump at every squeak or sound bad motherish as my SIL by saying at a dinner party to her dh as monitor started yelling and flashing 'Do turn the baby down won't you dear' and it went silent but carried on flashing - it was hilarious. She broke and went up after few mins though!!

We didn't use one when DS was little - house was small enough that you could hear him anywhere.

We generally use one here, but tbh since coming back from holiday last week I haven't plugged it back in again (we now also have DD who is now 8 months).

Never had one, never felt the need for one. I always heard my two, even when they were upstairs and I was downstairs.

We had a four bed when we had ds that was quite big and we never had one, and never had a problem at all.

Have moved to a very large house that is quite well soundproofed but only had one this time as ds kept 'visiting' dd after he had gone to bed to 'look' at her. He is a very good 5 yo but we wouldn't have forgiven ourselves if he'd tried to hug her or something similar.

We turned it off once dd was about 5 months and he'd lost interest. Was very funny though a couple of times when we could hear the door open and a little voice saying things like "hi I'm your big brother, i'll look after you if you're scared, just shout me and I'll come and sing you twinkle twinkle!" Made me cry sometimes how much he wanted to make sure she was ok. The monitor was one that you coulod talk to the baby as well and we only ever used that to say "please go and get back in your own bed" the footsteps were that fast across the landing back to his room you'd have thought it had bitten him!

I do think that lots of people think they will prevent anything awful happening to the baby...I don't really think that a monitor would make any difference.

Neither of ours have ever been in an upset state when we have gone to them and are (we think) better sleepers because we have never rushed to them at the first little snuffly noise.

We've just got one (ie yesterday!) - for use when ds is asleep in the house and dh and I are in the garden. Don't need one whilst we are in the house.

We bought a basic one when we had dd1 but we only used it twice as we kept picking some one elses baby up on it.Also our house isn't big so we are able to hear any crying anyway .

My kids and I both sleep better without the monitor!

Had one for ds1 when in a small flat. But have only used it once so far for ds2 even though we've now got a house.

Had one for dd1 but found there was lots of interference on it, it wasn't reliable when you moved so that the supporting wall of the house was between transmitter and receiver and when she slept in a different room (like if I wanted to try to get a nap during the day it would stop me sleeping.

Not used one since (with the other 3) and have had no problems at all. Always heard them, slept much better...etc etc!

Never had one for either of mine. Never occurred to me to get one.

think it depends on a couple of things. I have monitor I used for ds and use for dd. With ds even though he was first I didnt need it as much however DD has a lot of breathing problems so the monitor is great to hear when she starts a coughing fit that will lead to her having to be sat up and given inhalers etc. I live in a 3 bed semi and do hear if she cries but would not hear the coughing with the tv or washing machine on etc.

Never had one - fairly large Victorian house - head round kitchen door at regular intervals.....

We borrowed one from the next door neighbours. But it packed in after a couple of weeks. To be honest, DS had a good strong pair of lungs on him from the word go so we could hear him easily.

3 kids, no monitor (well did have one when youngest were about 12 months so that we could get some work done at the other end of the garden - but rarely used it).

i discovered that i couldn't hear ds from the back garden when i came in from lunch outside one day to hear him absolutely bawling his eyes out! :( never really needed one apart from that.