Do I NEED a video baby monitor?

[Deleted]

Context: DH and I have researched the crap out of every major baby purchase we will make--strollers, diapers, baby carrier, etc. We are at a loss with the whole baby monitor thing. I have settled on a sound monitor I like but DH thinks the video ones are sooooo cool.

I tend to fall in the category of "well my mom did just fine without X so why do I need it." We are trying to figure out if a video monitor is a NEED or a luxury? We live in a tiny house so I thought I would just go check on her if she made noise. But as a FTM I really don't know how I will feel about the whole thing which is why I am looking for other opinions.

[marybeth]

We didn't use one when DS was an infant, but we stared when he was a toddler. When they're older and start climbing, etc. it's nice to have but not a necessity for a baby IMO.

For this baby we will probably just buy another camera for our existing video monitor system, though.

[mpiemont]

We did not have a video monitor at all for ds1. Just an Angelare sound/sensor monitor. Once he got older I wanted to see what he was up to, make sure he didn't climb out, etc. We switched over to a video monitor when ds1 was 2.5yrs and ds2 was 8 months. Now I love having it but you certainly don't NEED a video monitor.

[la79al]

With DD1 and DD2, I just had a super cheapy sound one.  I had one on my shopping list for this one too and DH says no.  He likes the option to see what the baby is doing without going into the room to check.  He seems to think if the baby doesn't see me, it might help it sleep better.  Since he's buying, I'll probably let him pick.  

[orangepickle]

I didn't want a video monitor so I went with this one for the motion detector and awesome reviews: www.amazon.com/dp/B00GU07FLQ?tag=blself-20

[Starbuck128]

You know your home's set up best and what you are comfortable with, so if you think it is overkill, don't get one.

We don't have one, and honestly we barely used our sound monitor. With a one story, small house, a centrally located nursery, and a quiet neighborhood, I could hear every rustle and sigh just fine without a monitor.

I have a friend who clings to her video monitor when she's in a different room from her baby, and she has a similar small house. It's weird to me that she needs to hear every noise echoing through the monitor mere feet from her baby. When he cries, she looks at the monitor, and I just lean forward and look at him in his room. Different strokes...

[Poppy]

From feedback I've gotten from others it keeps the worry at bay. I've been told that you hear a little noise or cry and want to go check on them. With a video capability you can see if they really need to to go into the room and soothe them. Most of the time the baby is just moving and making a little noise. The moms have talked with said it saved them a lot of worry and unnecessary trips to check on LO.

[honeylemon]

We've never even used a regular monitor. But all the houses we've lived in have had the bedrooms close enough where we can hear if the kids need us.

[Deleted]

Jan 29, 2015 22:29:08 GMT -5 Poppy said:

From feedback I've gotten from others it keeps the worry at bay. I've been told that you hear a little noise or cry and want to go check on them. With a video capability you can see if they really need to to go into the room and soothe them. Most of the time the baby is just moving and making a little noise. The moms have talked with said it saved them a lot of worry and unnecessary trips to check on LO.

This is what DH says. I think with a video I would constantly be looking but he thinks I will constantly be checking if I don't have video...haha

[shmee]

I didn't have one until DD was about 18 months and we got one as a hand me down. It's been more useful for her as a toddler who gets out of bed every 3 minutes at nap time than it was when she was younger. That being said, i don't think you'd regret getting one at all if it's in your budget

[Cornflakegirl]

Our house is 2 floors and the nursery will be down the hall. After thinking about and knowing myself I decided to register for one. In the lung run I think it will save me a lot of unneeded trips to his room and give me that piece of mind that I need.

[viola]

I like them for being able to easily see if the baby is just fussing in their sleep or actually awake. Personally, I wont be prioritizing one, especially because we're room sharing for awhile. It would be nice to have eventually though. As PPs said, I bet it's awesome for checking on any potential escape artist activity.

[CTri17]

no, you don't. I mean you can but it isn't necessary. I have never had one.

That being said, I think there is an iphone app that you can buy just a camera and use your phone as the other side for much cheaper

[tabH]

When DD was an infant we lived in a one level condo and didn't really have a need for it. We started to use it when she got older and we moved into a 2 story home. It helps when I'm downstairs doing things and she starts to cry, I can see if it's just her fussing or standing up (like a pp said) and having a fit where I need to go upstairs. Or better yet, I can see when she is attempting to rip off her sleep sack and jump the crib!

[Deleted]

Do you NEED one?  No.  That is the short answer.  I have 2 kids currently and haven't used one yet but I could see how it would be nice for certain situations.

[lupineaura]

I don't think you NEED one for safety reasons. However, I will say I loved having ours, particularly because our daughter was not a great sleeper when she was younger. If you are planning on sleep training ever, it's very helpful because you can be reassured that they're not fussing for a serious reason. Also, for naps, it was nice to know when she was actually sleeping versus just playing quietly in her crib for a long time. Finally, without the video monitor, I would've missed out on a lot of adorable and hilarious moments. That all being said, now that she's almost 2 1/2, I don't really use any monitor more.

One piece of advice – you don't need a "baby" monitor. We actually got a very small portable home security camera that can be hooked up to our Wi-Fi. That way we actually can watch the video on a phone, tablet, computer etc. It was also cheaper than a typical video baby monitor. Just like with weddings, often if you just throw the word "baby" on the something it makes it more expensive.

[lupineaura]

Also funny story from when I was a FTM (well, I guess it still technically am). Our daughter goes to a home daycare with a lovely woman who's been doing this for 20 years. Needless to say she has all kinds of experience with tons of children. One night she came to our house in the evening to babysit. I was so careful and paranoid about my daughters sleep that I never used to even go into her room to check on her – I would look at the video monitor. I have the whole works in her room- sound machine, blackout shade, and a ton of techniques to quietly close the door. We came home from our evening out and Zoe was sound asleep. With her door wide open. The babysitter never really used monitors so she just put Zoe down and kept the door open so she could look in on her. She remarked how cute it was that our dog kept walking in and out of her room to check on her. She fell sleep just fine :-)

[snapdragon]

I didn't buy one because I like to save money and I thought it wasn't necessary, but I bought one later on for my second and I wish I had earlier. It's worth the extra cash, if you have it to spare. I also have a tiny house and can hear when they're crying, but the video monitor is FANTASTIC for knowing if they are actually sleeping or just playing/resting. My older daughter would wake up and sort of sit around quietly in her crib. I wanted to get her out if she was awake, but I didn't want to open the door and risk waking her if she was asleep (the door stuck, so it was loud). I also put my kids earlier to bed if they don't nap, and with quieter children it's hard to tell if a nap was actually taken if you don't have a video monitor.

[littlecookie]

Jan 29, 2015 22:48:06 GMT -5 CTri17 said:

no, you don't. I mean you can but it isn't necessary. I have never had one.

That being said, I think there is an iphone app that you can buy just a camera and use your phone as the other side for much cheaper

We have this. It's basically just a regular camera for your house and we can monitor from the phone. I liked having the video so I could easily see if I actually needed to go in.  DS's room was pretty close, so I could hear him without the sound on, so I generally turned the volume off and kept my phone face down. If I heard him, I checked the video to see if he really needed me. Especially helpful for us once he could sit up because if he didn't actually get up, he would usually just go back to sleep.

[jarlea]

Jan 29, 2015 23:51:08 GMT -5 littlecookie said:

Jan 29, 2015 22:48:06 GMT -5 CTri17 said:

no, you don't. I mean you can but it isn't necessary. I have never had one.

That being said, I think there is an iphone app that you can buy just a camera and use your phone as the other side for much cheaper

We have this. It's basically just a regular camera for your house and we can monitor from the phone. I liked having the video so I could easily see if I actually needed to go in.  DS's room was pretty close, so I could hear him without the sound on, so I generally turned the volume off and kept my phone face down. If I heard him, I checked the video to see if he really needed me. Especially helpful for us once he could sit up because if he didn't actually get up, he would usually just go back to sleep.

I'm going to third this suggestion. We're getting this: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F5CTTAU/ref=br_it_dp_o_nS_ttl?ie=UTF8&colid=2YDRMPMX6CQ3X&coliid=I1ZEW8WBUJD2T8&vs=1 and I like how both my H and I can view from our phones so we don't have to carry the monitor around with us (our phones are always on us anyway...).

[jil]

I agree with what everyone else said, you don't NEED a video monitor.

We had a sound only monitor until DD turned 1 and we moved to a house with the bedrooms on different levels. We got a video monitor that uses wifi and you view the video with an app (ibaby). Most of the time it's good, but the app crashes, freezes and sometimes just won't load.

I actually started a thread on the baby gear board looking for recommendations for non-Wi-Fi video monitors. I would like to get a new one, but if I can't find anything that looks amazing we will probably get the same model again.

[obi]

I'm a FTM so I have no experience to offer but DH went crazy looking into these things. I wish I remembered even half of the stuff he told me. He is definitely mr. Safety right now.
I felt the same as PPs. I didn't feel that we really NEEDED a video monitor. Our room is very close to the nursery, and we plan on having LO in our room for the first few months or so.
DH decided on registering for the Samsung simple view. It is not controlled by wifi/Bluetooth. Apparently those can be hacked. I'm sure it is an unlikely thing to happen but you never know.
You can also get more than one camera and it will show both on a split screen.
We do live in an older home with noisy floors and wiggly door knobs so I do like the idea of a video monitor for that, but I wasn't sold on it.
Lucky for us, DHs grandma found it on a great sale and picked it up for us. I think it might be on sale on Amazon right now too.
I definitely see it as a luxury, but not a ridiculous one. If you can make it work in your budget and have done the research and are making an informed purchase, then why not?

[jenari]

We only got a sound monitor for DD and mainly just used it at night once she was in her crib. Now that she's older we've definitely taken advantage of a video monitor that was lent to us. Sometimes she parties in her crib for 30 minutes before she settles down to sleep so it's convenient to be able to peek at her without actually going in the room. That being said, we don't have it on all the time. Just flip it on to check if she's making a ruckus. We still primarily use the sound monitor.

[Deleted]

Our friends had a video monitor and lived in a house so small they probably didn't even need an audio monitor. They mostly used it to watch her sleep, which I thought was kind of creepy. They still use it now she's one and a half. We live in a similarly tiny house that we probably don't need a monitor, but are getting an audio one because it's two stories and we might be outside or have music on or something while LO is asleep.

[hotcoconuts82]

I've had 2 kids survive using just sound monitors. You don't need a video monitor.

[jezebk]

Jan 30, 2015 0:07:13 GMT -5 jarlea said:

Jan 29, 2015 23:51:08 GMT -5 littlecookie said:

We have this. It's basically just a regular camera for your house and we can monitor from the phone. I liked having the video so I could easily see if I actually needed to go in.  DS's room was pretty close, so I could hear him without the sound on, so I generally turned the volume off and kept my phone face down. If I heard him, I checked the video to see if he really needed me. Especially helpful for us once he could sit up because if he didn't actually get up, he would usually just go back to sleep.

I'm going to third this suggestion. We're getting this: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F5CTTAU/ref=br_it_dp_o_nS_ttl?ie=UTF8&colid=2YDRMPMX6CQ3X&coliid=I1ZEW8WBUJD2T8&vs=1 and I like how both my H and I can view from our phones so we don't have to carry the monitor around with us (our phones are always on us anyway...).

That is pretty much the type of camera we had for our first child. DH got a really good deal on it and the camera served us well since we could both use our phones to check on DS. I even used it in the room sometimes when I wasn't sure if DS was asleep on my shoulder or not. I could see if he was asleep with my phone.

[onceinlovewithamy]

Another sound monitor here. Honestly, even when Hunter cried, I rarely went in to check on him. I just listened to his cries and could determine if he legit needed us, or was just fussing.

[mariisz]

I'm a FTM but I take care of my nephew (he is 9 months) and sometimes he will get up and not make noise. He's just standing up on his crib waiting for someone to go tend to him. It really helps that I can see when he's awake! SO already got a video monitor (Motorola I believe) and I will be using it with this LO

[Starbuck128]

Jan 30, 2015 10:06:12 GMT -5 mariisz said:

I'm a FTM but I take care of my nephew (he is 9 months) and sometimes he will get up and not make noise. He's just standing up on his crib waiting for someone to go tend to him. It really helps that I can see when he's awake! SO already got a video monitor (Motorola I believe) and I will be using it with this LO

He's going to be one of those quiet ones after he moves to a big boy bed too. You'll be minding your own business when he's napping, and when you turn around, you'll find him standing a few inches from you, just quietly watching. Boo!

[mariisz]

Jan 30, 2015 10:11:51 GMT -5 Starbuck128 said:

Jan 30, 2015 10:06:12 GMT -5 mariisz said:

I'm a FTM but I take care of my nephew (he is 9 months) and sometimes he will get up and not make noise. He's just standing up on his crib waiting for someone to go tend to him. It really helps that I can see when he's awake! SO already got a video monitor (Motorola I believe) and I will be using it with this LO

He's going to be one of those quiet ones after he moves to a big boy bed too. You'll be minding your own business when he's napping, and when you turn around, you'll find him standing a few inches from you, just quietly watching. Boo!

Hahahaha!! My brother and SIL are in for a treat!