Baby monitors

[checky]

Hi
Can anyone help, this is my first and I'm 36 weeks pg. Im really confused with baby monitors on offer.
I think I want one with its own monitor screen as well as the audio, and have only found a couple on offer. I dont want it to come through to my own tv tho.
Has anyone got one and what do you think of it?

Thanks for your help

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My persnal opinion is that if you have any neurotic tendancies and an NT baby, with no history of apnea or cot death in the family, you should not buy one with a tv monitor. I was a neurotic mother. If I had had one of the TV ones, I would never have been able to take my eyes away from the screen.

Thats just my experience and my opinion though.

Aha good point I hadn't thought of that. I dont thinki Im neurotic but anything could happen!!
Thanks

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Hi checky

Me and dh had many a conversation about monitors leading up to the birth! We settled on the Angelcare monitor (you can get it at Argos) about £60 i think. You put a pad under the matress and the monitor checks every 20 seconds for movement (breathing, heartbeat etc) and if it doesn't detect any an alarm sounds. Has a carry aound portable unit with it too. We find it great because you know the alarm will wake you up if needed, so you can sleep or get on with things without the worry of having to keep checking the screen or listening on a monitor, as mentioned I would be staring at a screen all the time too, afraid to sleep but thats just me. Hope this helps

We've been through a few monitors, as our house has quite thick walls, and DS1 is now on a different floor from us. The things that matter (to me) in a monitor are:

• transmission quality. I think the digital ones work from further away, which is sometimes very useful. Also, they tell you when they're not receiving any signal, so you know you're out of range.
• adjustable sensitivity. With a newborn, you may want to hear every snuffle and cough, but with a toddler, you really just want to hear the "oi! I need a wee!" bits.
• sturdyness. Things get dropped.
• ability to talk back to the baby unit. Very useful with a toddler.
• not too many functions. I don't want to watch my kids sleep, and I don't want alarms sounding when they move off a pad.

We've been reasonably happy with the Phillips digital one, and very happy with a BT monitor. Really solid and chunky, you can adjust the sensitivity from the parent unit, and it tells you the temperature in your kid's room.

I second Huskygirl. We have a monitor with pad that sits under the mattress. If dd should stop breathing for 20secs a high-pitchedalarm will alert us. It is ideal for a worrier like me, without this I wouldnt be able to sleep at night.

with our first we used monitors all the time till she was at least two. with second child we have barely used it. it only gets put on in the summer if we are out in the garden and he is upstairs in his front facing bedroom!

I have a Tomy walkabout and it is great about £20-30 I think. My MIL uses one for the FIL who she is a carer for as well.

The baby cant move off the pad with the Angelcare monitor, its only a small pad under the matress but it picks up the movement anywhere on the matress so it doesn't matter where the baby lies on it. Fits in a moses basket, crib or cot. The BT one sounds good though that it displays the temperature too. I definately agree its all confusing though! Happy shopping!