Essential Features of a Baby Monitor

When you’re buying a baby monitor you’re often either standing in a relatively quiet, well lit shop, or you’re calmly sitting at home on the computer, as you may well be doing right now. This is a problem. The problem is that when you are actually using a baby monitor the situation you’ll find yourself in aren’t always as relaxed, quiet and convenient and this can mean that baby monitors you thought ideal end up falling short of the mark. 

Visual Display of Audio
One of the main reasons people choose baby monitors is so that they can hear their baby no matter where they are and what they are doing. If you’re sitting in a quiet room at home on the computer, or even in a relatively calm and quiet shop, you may focus almost exclusively in the quality if that sound. Certainly the quality of sound is important, with DECT offering the best sound quality of all, but sometimes even that’s not enough.
No matter how good your baby monitor is, if you happen to be doing the vacuuming or you’re in the kitchen with the microwave going it may well be difficulty to hear the door knock, let alone hear your baby crying through the baby monitor.  This is where visual representation of the audio is ideal. Typically this will involve a row of lights across the top of the monitor which light up in response to any sound detected by the monitoring unit. So if our little one is really screaming away, the lights will be illuminating your house! 

 Babymoov Digital Green Baby Monitor

Smarter convenience
It’s surprising how many people end up carting around their baby monitor listening unit around with them, checking batteries and reception regularly, forgetting the fact thy already have a fully chard device that’s got great reception, great sound and excellent video. Today’s smartphone baby monitor’s make life much easier and by buying a smartphone monitor you can not only cut down on cost, but often find a range of additional benefits which make them ideal solutions. 

Battery Monitor
Whilst today’s baby monitors are pretty efficient and can make batteries last a long time, the parent unit will need replacement batteries at some point. The only problem is how you will be able to tell if the batteries have run out, or if your baby is just being very quiet. However, some baby monitors do have battery meters and whilst at the time of purchase this can seem a little unnecessary or unimportant, the truth is that one you have a small child to look after, as well as yourself, a battery meter can offer tremendous reassurance.

Encryption
If you live in a fairly built up neighbourhood then it is probably best to go for DECT digital baby monitor, or perhaps one which connects through your home wireless network.  If you’re in a more rural environment then you may not necessarily have the same concerns. The problem is that unsecured analogue baby monitors use a limited number of radio frequencies to transmit audio and video, which means that it may well be possible for other people nearby to hear or see the feed coming from your baby monitor.

3 Embarrassing Experiences With Baby Monitors

Just recently we’ve heard of quite a few funny and embarrassing tales related to baby monitors, and so in today’s post we thought we’d share them with you, and ask if you have ever had an amusing or memorable incident with a baby monitor?

Please do share your experiences using the comments section below. Let these tales serve as a warning!

The (Too) Honest Mother In Law
Tom and Rachel were doing a great job with their first baby Maisy and had put her to bed for the evening without incident. Tom’s mother had come over for the evening and after Maisy has settled down all three of them enjoyed a pleasant chat and the odd glass of wine. Part way throughout the evening Tom’s mother asked if she might pop upstairs to use the bathroom, after which she evidently nipped into Maisy’s nursery to sneak a quick peak.

What Tom’s mother was clearly not aware of was the existence of a baby monitor in the nursery, allowing Tom and Rachel to hear every little breath of their darling bundle of joy. It was at this moment that little breaths weren’t the only sounds being transmitted to the portable unit sitting in the living room. For several minutes Tom and Rachel were treated to a lengthy one way conversation between Tom’s mother and the sleeping Maisy, touching on topics such as how badly Rachel needed to lose her baby weight, how she was likely to let her figure go and why she ought to be making much more of an effort with herself. She rambled in a singsong voice about why Rachel needed to get a move on if she was going to produce a baby brother or sister as she only has a few years left in her and even how Rachel’s mother looked, all with no clue as to the fact that every word said had been heard.

Rachel and Tom said nothing, but about half an hour later Maisy began to cry. As the whimpering sound was heard blasting from the baby monitor sitting on the table at the end of the settee, Tom’s mother’s face cycled rapidly from surprise, to confusion, to concern, to realisation, to fear, settling nicely somewhere between mortified and  embarrassed.

Keeping Up (To Date) With the Joneses
Sarah and Mike lived in a quiet property which backed on to an estate that was almost exclusively sheltered housing for elderly people who had 24 hour access to a warden. This seemed to be ideal, as it was extremely quite much of the time, perfect for allowing their first baby Jack to sleep soundly.  Not long after Sarah and Mike bought a baby monitor and plugged it in, they started to hear strange conversations coming from it, which were clearly nothing at all to do with Jack. Two distinct voices could be heard arguing every now and then. It seemed that the only conversation the voices had were arguments, ranging in topic from the state of the man’s nose hair to the quality of the woman’s cooking that evening.

Apparently the property the couple lived in had a monitor which could be used to contact the warden, and for some reason the baby monitor seemed to be picking up inadvertent broadcast transmitted through this.  Although Sarah and Mike never found out who the couple were or exactly which house they lived in, there were not that many properties within range and they knew most of their neighbours. It amused them as they cheerfully said hello to possible suspects, how much they knew about the darker side of these apparently happily retired doting couples.

(Not Quite) Water Music
Dave and Jen were entertaining Jen’s parents, enjoying a nice dinner and a relaxing evening, at least for as long as their baby Josh remained sleeping soundly. After the meal Jen’s father headed upstairs to use the bathroom. As with many new build properties these days the internal walls were terribly thin and the bathroom just happened to be next door to the nursery. As Jen’s father settled himself on the throne to enjoy a few minutes to himself in quiet contemplation, the rest if the party remained happily engaged in conversation downstairs.

Until, that is, the baby monitor unit in the living room began to emit some very peculiar noises. The conversation died, and anxious glances were exchanged as peculiar noises bean to dominate the air waves. At first everyone assumed that Josh was filling his nappy, passing a little wind, or making funny noises with his lips, but eventually it became apparent that the person responsible for the noises was most definitely not able to fit in any baby nappies.

For the next several minutes Dave, Jen and her mother sat in an awkward silence whilst rumble followed stammering tremor, and a flatulent squeeze followed an alarming squeak. Eventually Jen’s father came back downstairs, entirely oblivious to the entertainment he had unwittingly inflicted upon the party, although he was treated with a distinctly cool distance by his wife for the remainder of the night.

Baby Movement and Breathing Monitors

When people talk about ‘sleeping like a baby’, they really must mean spending the whole night tossing and turning as the one thing babies do a lot of all-night if moving around and walking up. It’s normal for babies to fidget and move around at night, largely because it’s at night that their brain start to over experiences of the day before, rehearsing movements and trying things out the next day that little better. Night time for babies is practise time for the days ahead! So one way of checking to make sure that your baby is safe and well during the night is to check that they are moving around regularly. On average a baby moves at night about once every ten seconds, a pause without movement for fifteen seconds is very unusual and if it has been twenty seconds without any movement at all, that may be a warning sign. 

On average a baby moves at night about once every ten seconds

Sleep apnoea, which is when a person stops breathing during sleep, is something which anyone can suffer from and in fact many people do. Adults may well suffer from sleep apnoea but not even realise it, except that they feel terribly lethargic all day. But in babies sleep apnoea can be extremely dangerous.

This is where baby movement or baby breathing monitors come in. Most baby breathing or baby movement monitors attach simply and easily to your baby’s nappy and are able to detect even the slightest movement, they then measure the time elapsed since the last movement.

Some movement monitors will sound an alarm if no movement has been detected after 15 or 20 seconds, with some monitors such as the Snuza Halo Mobile Baby Monitor initially attempting to stimulate and stir your baby into moving before sounding an alarm five seconds later if this has not been successful. Breathing monitors work in much the same way, with some like the Respisense Data Baby Breathing Monitor even recording your baby’s breathing pattern during the night on a SD card.

Snuza Halo Mobile Baby Monitor

Regain your nursery floor space – storage tricks and tips

Generally speaking, babies are small and delicate, taking up a little amount of room. So why on earth do we need so much stuff for their needs? And where do you put it all? In this article we are going to reveal some top tips from parents, on how to store all of your baby’s bits and bobs without having to give up your own bedroom to use as a storage cupboard.

 Baby nursery storage tips

I remember when we had our first child. We had earmarked the spare room as the nursery, bought a couple of boxes of nappies, a few armfuls of clothes, mobile and other essentials. It looked a lot, but there was still a bit of floor space. Then we got the cot, and the baby changing unit, and the nursing chair. Then we realised that in order to put our darling little baby into his cot we’d pretty much have to throw him in there from the landing. Talking with other parents and thinking back to how we coped, I thought it would be helpful to collect together a few top tips for coping with storing all of your baby’s items more efficiently.

You certainly don’t want to be tripping over things in your child’s nursery, especially if you happen to be holding them at the time and neither do you want to be floundering about desperately looking for the wet wipes while holding a poo covered wriggly mess that’s in danger of weeing any second if you don’t get a nappy on right away. (That’s a particular danger with baby boys by the way – and yes, I know)

First of all, take a look at the cot. Many cots have a rather odd design when you think about it. The mattress base is a good foot or two above the floor, yet the sides come right down to the floor, or very near it. Why?  It makes sense to make more use of the space underneath your cot, so look out for cots which either have a shelf underneath the base, or simply allow you to slide boxes or baskets of things underneath. It’s a great place to store those large bumper packs of nappies. 

Nappy storage nags are a boon. Often you end up pulling nappies out of the box they came in and because of this you end up with that huge box sitting in the middle of the room taking up space. You can find a number of gorgeous nappy holders, often disguised to look like fluffy animals and these attach either to a wall, or hang from the ceiling or the back of the door.  You can ram a good twenty or so nappies in there at least, sometimes up to fifty and this makes it much more convenient as well as saving a good deal of space. The back door is a great place to store things as it clears the floor considerably.  Be ruthless. You can easily find that at least a drawer full clothes no longer fit or aren’t suitable. Babies grow quickly and so it is important to check through the drawers, cupboard or shelves to identify clothes which your baby has grown out of, either selling them or packing them away in storage. Clothes which are too large can be sorted elsewhere until  they are needed and if you have a large winter coat in your child’s nursery and it’s July, you may find it better to put this elsewhere. 

Shelves are a boon. You can go to any DIY store and pick up a couple of shelves, which can be fitted easily in minutes. Don’t put them above our child’s cot or above where they have their nappy changed, but you’ll find that having a couple of shelves on the wall for things such as their thermometer, medicines and nappy cream is a real help, keeping things handy, whilst not taking up vitally needed space.

Sleep - Nature's Way Of Installing New Software

Your adult brain consists of millions of neurons, all of which are interconnected in a unique pattern. That unique pattern is largely what makes you who you are. As you learn and develop you make new connections and allow other older, less important connections to be lost. This process still occurs in adult life, but much less so than in a young child’s brain.

As a baby the brain is a little like when you get a new computer. There’s some stuff preloaded, but it’s all very basic. Your new computer can send signals to the monitor, just as your baby’s eyes can send signals to the brain, although often the computer will have basic drivers installed, and by adding new graphics cards drivers you can get a much clearer picture.

A baby’s brain struggles to do very much with all of the signals being sent to it by the eyes, and a baby has to learn to make better sense of those signals, improving its eyesight over time. Every experience, everything sensed is absorbed by your baby’s brain like a sponge. It’s unbelievable just how much information goes in. Eventually, just as your computer’s drive may become full, slowing the system down and potentially causing crashes and problems, your baby begins to tire and need sleep.

A lot happens when your baby sleeps

It is then during this sleep that their brain sorts through the wealth of experiences, trying to make sense of them all, piecing them together, making comparisons, discarding those that don’t work, and consolidating those that seem to fit to a pattern.

Once patterns and understandings become better understood new connections are made in the brain, a little like installing new software on your computer so that it can do more things. Then the clutter is removed, and both your computer and your baby are ready to ‘reboot’ and start all over again.

To some extent we as adults continue to do this de-cluttering, sorting out and building new connections and it is this process which is likely to be responsible for our dreams. We only dream during what is known as REM sleep, so called because of the Rapid Eye Movement which occurs at this time. As an adult you probably dream for around an hour and a half each night if you get a full eight hours sleep. You probably won’t remember much more than a few brief seconds, and even then only those few seconds you will remember before you wake up.

But your baby will have an awful lot more de-cluttering and sorting out to do, and so whilst for you REM sleep and dreams form only a relatively small part of your night’s sleep, your baby will dream for the majority of the time they are asleep.

Yes, your baby will be dreaming, and there is even research which suggests that babies in the womb dream. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what those dreams consist of?

Should you leave your baby when they cry?

It’s always a heart wrenching decision to make when your baby is crying in their cot. You desperately rush to their side only to calm them down, place them back and then hear them to cry again 5 minutes later. What do you do? Is it best to leave them crying? Or do you tend to them until they eventually calm down.

 Do you leave your baby crying in the cot?

Leaving your baby to cry has always been a very controversial topic which brings up many strong opinions of both parents experiences and what they believe is right to do. Many mums will say if your baby is crying, it means that they are in distress, in need of something, so you can’t just sit back and ignore them. Whereas, other parents may say that your baby may be crying for attention and if you keep going back to them every time they will get used the routine and the response, meaning they will not stop until you do come and comfort them.

How often do you go to soothe your baby?

One of the main techniques that you will read about is controlled crying, a system where you go to comfort your baby in delayed time slots. If you hear your baby crying, you are told to leave them for the first five minutes, if they become unsettled again, the parent should then wait ten minutes before they go to comfort their child, if it happens again the parent should then wait a further 15-20 minutes before going to comfort their child. Controlled crying is not recommended for baby’s under 6 months and many studies have found that it leaves no long term damaging effect on the child. However, this technique has come under fire by many parents who claim that it is ‘barbaric’ and ‘cruel’, whereas others say you have to use ‘tough love’ and many mothers quoting ‘I wish I had done it sooner!’ Yet, critics have argued the fact that leaving your baby to cry exposes them to unnecessary stress and trauma.

So you may feel like a useless parent and really feel like you are coming to the end of your tether, but do not worry as we can assure you that you are not the only person who is going through this. It’s all about creating the right balance, you both need to ensure that you get the correct amount of undisturbed sleep in order for you as a parent to function properly and for the baby to maintain the crucial growth and development that happens during their sleep.  As a parent, you need to be consistent who with how you soothe your baby otherwise a routine for you both will never be established. Give it 5 minutes before you go to check on them, let them know it’s sleep time, rub their belly and try to refrain from picking them up each time. You know your baby better than anyone else, so you do what you feel is best. However, you can't be too soft otherwise you will have many years of restless sleep ahead of you!
And remember, your baby will not love you any less in the morning.