Use of baby monitor

Just wondering to what extent people use their baby monitor. I don't really plan on using it at night, as bubby's room is right next to ours.. and if he wants me.. I'm bound to hear him cry. I'd rather not have all his noises next to my ear all night.

I guess I've just thought I'd use it more thru the day when he's upstairs sleeping and I'm downstairs doing stuff... like washing all his nappies! LOL.

Do you have yours on you constantly? or only certain times?

I have mine on during the day when Dom is in bed asleep because i usually have the door to the hallway shut because of the noise from the other kids..
He has just moved into a room with his sister so i generally have it on at night in the bedroom too,just in case i dont hear him as i sleep pretty soundly this time around....

We have an Angelcare monitor that has a sensor pad and alarms if breathing or movement stops after 20 secs. We have it on every time Amy is in the cot and have done since birth. As DH says, what does a baby sound like that stops breathing?

We were the same as Gemma with Paris, and we will be doing the same with Seth... We even used the angelcare when she shared our room, and once again we'll do the same with seth.

The noise factor didn't bother me they are pretty good these days, you can turn them down so you don't hear shuffles etc. And we still use it if Paris has had an asthma attack or is sick.

*hugs*
Cailin

I havent used ours very much yet. Only a handful of times actually. Emma is right next door at night & I have no problem hearing her, then through the day she is downstairs with me too. But I think I will use it more as she gets older.

I have never had one for either of my girls, I have been offered ones, but for me, I literally sleep with my ears open wide!
I can hear Maddy snoring all the way in her room, with her door almost closed, even with Tv on in lounge!
As for Indah I can hear her when she starts to wake, but as she sleeps thru too til 8amish, I hear her stirring & talking so i get up & go to loo, if not up already, I simply hear it all & it keeps me awake, I think a monitor would just not get any use from us!

I bought that angel care one with the breathing thing and to be honest its never been out of the box 8-[ Our house isn't very big so we can hear her, she also has a sleep wrap she she can't roll onto her belly anyway so i am not worried.

I am the same like Tegan- we used ours for a little while but i think it was just as a novelty IYKWIM- we liked that we could see the light flashing and hearing him roll!!

good luck!

We didn't have one until Jenna moved into the other room, and now we use it all the time because we shut 2 doors between Jenna's room and the living area. I like to listen to music in the house, and I got sick of tiptoeing. The monitor is a great thing in that way. Also we have it on all night as missy gets too unsettled if we let her scream for too long. This way we can hear when she stirs, and listen to whether she winds up too much.

Fi

With my eldest 2 girls I didn't have a baby monitor, I always left all the doors open and could hear them. They were in my room for about 5 months then their own room was very close by. When they were napping during the day I'd just keep things quiet & listen for them.

Now with Angus, Asha & Lauren I have a baby monitor because DH insists on closing bedroom doors, but it's useless!! It's a Fisher Price sound & light one. It's good because you can adjust the volume & you can see the lights even if your husband has turned the volume down. The trouble is reception. We would often pick up a baby from another house, and not be able to pick up within our own house very well.

So I just keep my bionic mummy ears open and keep creeping up the hall to listen at the door when I'm not in the room with them.

When they're tiny they're sleeping in a cradle right beside me, and I listen to them breathing. Those Angelcare things mentioned above sound really good.

Yvette,

As I mentioned before I have an Angelcare monitor and I picked up a second one from the local market a few weeks ago. It is an older one and was told it works. I was going to list it on eBay but if you are interested you could have it for what I paid for it which is $15. I better check if it works okay first.

we use jackson's during the day if we are down the other end of the house, but we turn it off at night because it is dead quiet we can hear him easily. u also use it if i go out into the garden or whatever during the day

Yvette, It just occured to me that you probably need two monitors so mine won't do.

Thanks Gemma, yes we'd need 2, and now that they're a bit older they'd often wriggle off the pad, & I'm comfortable just listening out for them now.

Does anyone else have trouble with interference? Maybe it's worse with us because we have so much electrical gear on all the time, tvs & computers.

We use the monitor more during the day. At night, Gabby's room is right next to ours so we hear her when she cries. The only time I use the monitor at night is when the weather is warm and we need a fan on us to sleep. Then I can't hear her so I have to plug the monitor in. I find it annoying though because she sometimes cries out but puts herself back to sleep straight away. Normally I don't hear those little cries but, because of the monitor, it wakes me up. I've run in to her room a couple of times only to find a sleeping baby, LOL. I now know to wait a minute before I run in.
We use the monitor during the day because our office is out in the garage so I can't hear her if I am on the computer. It's also difficult to hear over the TV in the living room so I like to have the monitor on even when I am inside (and even though our house is pretty tiny).
We have an anglecare one that we borrowed from friends. They are due to have another baby soon so I imagine they will want it back. I'll have to buy one but I definitely won't get the same one. I want one of those ones that switches on when there is a sound - not one that has the sound going the whole time. Also, we find we get a lot of interference with the anglecare one.

Everyone's mentioning interference. Think I better unpack the monitor we got and check it all out.

Edited: We just unpacked the monitor and checked it out. Seems really good! No interference.. and we have a PLETHORA of equipment on. Loads of computers, the cordless phone base station etc (which the instructions said could cause interference). And it stayed very quiet, but could hear DH clearly in the baby's room. Worked all the way downstairs and out to the back yard too. Think we'll be happy with this one :)

We've had a real problem with interference and as a result are onto our THIRD monitor and even this one will have to go back to the shops. (I'm ready to give up, but really do need one).

We've tried a Tomy (basic model around $99), a Philips one and now a video/sound one which is Target brand.

All are really noisy, due to us having two lots of cordless phones (business and home sets), and a wireless computer network. I think the two laptops cause the worst of the noise.

Now that I've tried a monitor with a video screen, I'm really hooked on it, but I now need to find another one which doesn't have such high interference.

Has anyone had any luck with one - where you have lots of wireless products nearby?

Thanks
Margot.

Yup we have a wireless network as well (entertainment box down at the tv, and dh's laptop use it). In fact that was the reason I was keen to pull it out of the box to see how it would go coz I thought if anything that would probably interfere. But it didn't seem to. I was surprised how well it worked right inside the office.. coz I was prepared for it not to work so well amongst all our equipment, but as long as it worked down in the kitchen etc. But it was good everywhere. We've also got 3 cordless phones around the house. Hope all these RF signals aren't going through my belly to bubby! :-k

Edit: DH just suggested you could try changing the channel on the wireless network before trying more monitors. That might fix interference from that.

Our Angelcare had interference and DH built a small shelf in Amy's room and put it on that. Raising it off the ground helped. Also if the other monitor (the one you take with you) is near a lot of electrical things we get a little bit of interference.

Thanks, I'll certainly try putting it up higher. And the channels again.

Ivana_baby, which brand monitor do you have?

Thanks
Margot

It's called Tommee Tippee Reassurance monitor. There's one on the babies galore site. The one with the flip up thing on the baby's unit.

We also have the video monitor and love it. We only use it at night and hook it up to our tv... it does interfer but putting up higher works well.

Margot_In_Oz, we have the Tomy basic model you mentioned, but have not found much of a problem with interference. Maybe it is the position it is in? Ours is on the dining room table (our downstairs is all open plan) where there is no other electrical equipment nearby.

Ivana & Fletch I'm like you with upstairs/downstairs, so we only use the monitor during the day, or on the odd occasion I want to have a shower while James is napping - I bring it into the bathroom with me.

Pearl