For the first 6-8 months of little man's life, we only had an audio monitor. I felt okay knowing we had an AngelCare monitor, where it picked up his movements and set off an alarm if he stopped breathing, so I didn't think we needed to go the extra mile and get a video monitor. (See the AngelCare monitor below)
Then I saw all the cool pictures of my friend Nicole's (@ the Kavanaugh report) baby from his video monitor and thought, maybe we really should get one. So, following her recommendations, we bought the Dlink wireless Day and Night camera below. (Click the link if you want more information- it really is awesome!)
We liked this camera better than all the other cameras (baby video monitors and surveillance cameras) because not only was it not terribly expensive (I think we bought it at Fry's for $80?) comparatively, but it had better features than most. With this video monitor, there are no handheld units. It is just a wireless camera that you screw into the wall in their room and then plug into an outlet for power. We are able to see little man in his crib either on our computers, our iPad, or our iPhones. You can opt to have the sound on or off (usually we have it off, because we still keep the AngelCare on just in case), can zoom in to the picture, can take pictures of the screen image, and can check it from anywhere! It is really reassuring to me as some days I still have a really hard time leaving little man to go to work. If he is at home with DH, such as when I was working today, I can just tap one button on my phone and see him/hear him snoozing away peacefully during his naps.
Since we bought the video monitor, however, we love it for many reasons other than the reasons listed above. The first being, I never knew how much he WASN'T sleeping when I thought he was!
Turns out, little man really likes to nap for a while, wake up, sit up, sometimes stand up and play with his mobile, coo or chat to himself a little bit, and then lay back down and go back to sleep. Sometimes he will go back to sleep for 10-15 minutes, sometimes he will go back to sleep for an hour or more on top of whatever he had already slept for. Once I was able to see him, I stopped going in at the first coo every time, and realized better what his sleep habits were.
Also, I realized just how funny he is (and I think a lot of other babies do this as well) at sleeping. I've taken a few examples to show you just how he sleeps. Because, really, that can't be comfortable!!!
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| Exhibit A |
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| Exhibit B |
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| Exhibit C |
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| And my favorite, Exhibit D |
Sometimes, we turn on the video monitor just for a few minutes to see what funny position he is sleeping in that night. It is really reassuring to me to be able to see him and know what he is doing, even when I am not in the room. Especially since we have a child who sits bolt upright (just like his mom, oops) as soon as the door to the bedroom opens. It doesn't matter how quiet we are, in his entire almost year and a half of life, we've successfully checked on him in the middle of the night/nap a total of two times without waking him up.
And just a little love from tonight, little man cuddling his stuffed bunny and sucking his thumb. Makes my heart melt every time :)
♥ the naptown organizer