Staying Put: Keeping tabs on baby

Beth Ann Bayus is sleeping soundly. Here she tells us why.

It’s like packing for a trip: you really only need two things, your ID and a credit card. The first will get you on the plane, and the second will get you anything else you may have forgotten once you land at your destination. Same holds true for new parents. You really only need two things when you get onboard for your trip: a book called “Growing a Reader from Birth: The Path From Language to Literacy” and a rotating video nursery monitor.

I have to admit, I’m a convert. The first time I ever saw a video nursery monitor was during the prerequisite BRU baby shower registry walk through. We’ve all been there. Belly bulging so far out in front of you that you can’t pass sideways through the aisles, clipboard and scanner in hand as you and your partner navigate the strange territory of baby gear like Lewis and Clark on a canoe trip through the St. Lawrence Seaway – - except only one of you is puking overboard. Overwhelmed just got a whole new meaning.

As we entered the “surveillance” aisle (yes, there’s an entire aisle) and passed the shelves upon shelves of monitors, I insisted on just getting the plain ol’ fashioned audio one, concerned only that it have varying frequencies so that our neighbors couldn’t hear me talking about “latch on” or any other potentially off-color comment at 2:38 in the morning. (Sony Baby Call audio monitor, $44.99).

My husband, the techno-gadget-phile of the pair, kept picking up the new fangled video monitor and trying to entice me to check off that box on the registry, despite the heftier price tag. No, I insisted naively, the books all say they’re a waste of money, as I confidently circled the audio-only monitor’s SKU number. As the proverbial saying goes, “BIG mistake, HUGE mistake!”

We weren’t a week into the “sleep in your own crib” stage before I discovered the error of my ways, fully admitted such error to my smirking husband and promptly sent him off on a BRU run to retrieve that little gem of gadgetry I had so quickly dismissed. — Summer Infant Day and Night handheld color video monitor, $179.99). Turns out, there’s a big difference between hearing what your child is doing and actually seeing what they’re doing, a point lost until you’re staring blankly into the chasm-like holes of an audio monitor speaker wondering exactly what is making your kid scream like a cornered guinea pig for the fourth time that night. Inevitably, you break the “How to Teach Your Kid to Fall Asleep on Their Own” mantra and commit the cardinal sin of entering their room, giving in to the drama and setting yourself up to repeat the routine night after night, over and over for what seems like all of eternity.

Did I mention that sleep is good, not only for your baby, but for you, too? Obvious, but worth repeating the “for you” part. And that’s where the video monitor outshines the audio-only one. It gives new parents the courage to stay put in their own beds, knowing full well that their child really hasn’t cut off their pinky finger somehow on that jagged crib edge they’ve been meaning to sand down, a fact confirmed visually from the comfort of their pillow. Instead, video monitor parents can calmly roll over and fall back to sleep, while the sleep-deprived audio-only monitor parents lie there wondering, “Should I go in, or shouldn’t I?!” (And believe me, they always do.) Lest I sound cold-hearted, I confess to turning down the sound on the video monitor so that I could watch our daughter cry it out in my own private silence. Somehow, not hearing the crying, but being able to watch her put herself back to sleep made it easier to accept that ultimately, we were doing the right thing. Having the visual reassurance without the gut-wrenching audio interference got me over the heartbreak hump and kept me from falling into the “I have to go in there” trap.

It’s definitely wiser to make the extra $130 investment right off the bat and go visual. Better yet, pay the extra bucks and spring for the rotating video monitor, which, once junior figures out how to go AWOL from their crib, will save you from going into their room to hunt for them in unfamiliar territory like behind the rocker or between the dresser and the nightstand. (And trust me, toddlers are like mice – - only their skull size limits the places they can, and will, squeeze into!) Again, I speak from experience here. It took all of one night with our daughter transitioning to her “big girl bed” for us to figure out the beauty of being able to track her nocturnal roaming with a monitor whose camera moved. One panicked, “She’s off the monitor!” in the middle of the night was enough to warrant a third trip to the hallowed halls of BRU for yet another monitor upgrade.

So go with an experienced travel agent’s advice here. Save yourself the hassle and board the parenthood plane prepared from the onset, with a rotating video monitor in your carry-on. Without it, you’re just flying coach.

Tagged as: Baby, Baby shower, Children, Family, Shopping