Until a few years ago I never believed a baby monitor would provide me with peace of mind when it came to my sleeping child. I worried it was a tool that was too relied upon by parents. That it may cause us to focus on the monitor more than our own parental instincts.
In 2009 my young cousin lost her newborn to SIDS and my thoughts about baby monitors changed. Once SIDS has directly affected your family, it multiples your fears in ways you can never imagine. Your concern with safety is heightened forever. For me, I lost my ability to sleep when baby sleeps. I can’t do it. When my son was born in 2010 I stayed awake watching him until my husband or an older sibling would take over for me. For the first month of his life, we were sleep deprived not because he wouldn’t let us sleep, but because of worry.
This is when my husband and I started to research monitors on our own. We knew we didn’t want a baby monitor that didn’t allow us to physically see baby. We decided a video baby monitor was important because I, clearly, wasn’t able to take my eyes off my child.
Will a Baby Monitor Really Give you Peace of Mind?
For me, I would say, yes having a baby monitor did give me peace of mind. Having a baby video monitor allowed me to be a mother to our other children again. It gave me the opportunity to do dishes, fold laundry, and be away from arms-reach of baby while still keeping watch over him. With it, I was able to forgo my anxieties caused by our extended family’s tragedy a year earlier.
What Should I Look for in a Baby Monitor?
If I were buying a baby monitor today, I would likely look for something that allowed me to view my baby’s heartbeat, temperature, and oxygen levels. There are several wearable options that are being combined with video baby monitors that I think are fantastic because they provide data that many hospitals look for when they are monitoring a child. In terms of safety, I would be thrilled to find a monitor that resembled hospital monitoring systems.
