baby monitors....are they an essential?

[tan32]

With my DD i didnt use one, our house was small and her room was next to ours and her window backed onto our backyard. With DS we used one as his room was down the other end of our new bigger house and i felt that i would not be able to hear him if he woke, we will use it again with this one, i picked it up on special from Coles its a fisher price and i payed $7 for it as it was clearance stock. However DD was the best monitor for me, she would come and wake me to tell me DS was crying......lol

[Shellbelle]

Wow, $7 for a baby monitor, what a bargain!!!

[Karina]

We borrowed one from friends, but we only used it once or twice before we decided we could hear her anyway as her room is so close to ours.

[~Trish~]

I love our monitor. I don't need it at night because our rooms are close together and I wake up to the slightest sound that either of my boys make, but during the day it is great. I spend most of the day outside or up the other end of the house and wouldn't be able to hear DS2 without the monitor. I use a Philips monitor which is fantastic.

[meow]

We don't have one and don't seem to need it. Our baby sleeps in the bedroom with us and is either asleep with me in the HAB or in his cot during the day but our flat is small so I can hear him.

[Becci]

I don't think we will use ours much in the begining as our house is designed so that eveythigs is central,plus he will be sleeping in our room at night.
When we move him into his own room I might use it as the boys sleep next door and teenagers waking grumpily in the middle of the night is not a pleasant thing! This I guess will all depend on how he is sleeping then too. If he's still waking in the night then we'll have to use it, but if we are fortunate enough (fingers crossed everyone) to have him sleep through the night then it probably won't need to be used much.
the rooms not far from ours (just the other side of the bedroom) but to stop bubs from waking the big boys it might need to be used.

[aussienic]

I don't think they are a necessity but they are great to have, even if you go to someones house overnight or have a bbq..

I have an angelcare, would never go without it now.. well worth the money

[[M]umma[M]ia]

nope! they arnt essential at all...

[*Beema*]

We have received an Angel Care Sound and Movement monitor, was something we decided we wanted for some extra piece of mind, first time parents and a bit nervous! Will be very useful in the new house though as it is a long bigger than the one we are in now and is two story, plus with office separate from the main house (via a connecting corridor).

But each to their own really, we have friends who chose a motion sensing video camera which would activate when bubs moved... they said it was fun to watch what bubs did while sleeping! But wasn't useful when bubs got big enough and found the camera!

[Celsie]

We sleep soundly at night knowing that if our son stops breathing,the angelcare monitor will alarm and we'll be there in a second.

Although, we have had a few false alarms, where he's been sleeping on the edge of the cot and not on the sensor pads. First few times scare the hell out of you. It's amazing how fast you can run while you're still half asleep.