Do I need a baby monitor if I have a breathing sensor mat?

[SpongeCake23]

We are currently all going to bed together, DS is currently 5 months and still in our bedroom. He will continue to be in our room until he’s a year old as his bedroom will be in the attic.
As he turns 6 months next month, we are planning on having an evening again, leaving DS in his cot from about 7:30 after his bath.

We have a nanny breathing sensor mat, which alarms if he were to stop breathing or if he were to move off the cot. Do we need to purchase a monitor too? Or is a breathing monitor enough?

We have a video monitor that we use in the evenings (but not a breathing one). I like it because we can hear easily if he cries and don’t have to keep the tv down really low or worry that we won’t hear him crying. We can see if he is distressed or flailing about and wait to see if he settles and we could see if he rolled onto his front etc.

Does the breathing monitor transmit sound? If not I would probably want something extra just in case he was getting distressed. I wouldn’t want to wait until he stopped breathing for the alarm to go off, IYSWIM. You could just go for a simple sound one rather than a video one though.

Yes, you can't just shut the door and assume he won't be scared and cry so you'll need one. Also there's a 6 month sleep regression so might not be the best time to start changing his routine.

If you can hear him crying from downstairs then you don’t need a monitor. If you can’t, then a breathing sensor mat won’t tell you if he’s crying/needs you.

I don't have a breathing sensor mat, do have a video monitor. I don't think they do the same things tbh. The monitor is invaluable - we hear her stir quicker than we would without in the living room, and even if she's screaming we can't hear her in the kitchen without the monitor. Also like having the picture as it's easier to tell if she might settle herself or if we need to go to her. It's also just nice to be able to glance over at it and see her sleeping peacefully - helps me relax if she looks like she'll stay down a while.

I couldn't get on with the breathing sensor. Would go off randomly, did would be asleep and fine and we would wake dd by going in - was horrendous.

You obviously need to know if he’s crying. So if you’ll definitely hear him downstairs, even over the TV or music then you can probably do without for now. However, if he’ll be sleeping on a different floor to you once he’s 1, which will be another floor up again from the living room, you’ll definitely need one then so you may as well buy it now. As you already have the sensor mat an inexpensive audio only one should be fine.