You never know until you know
That's a favourite phrase of my Beloved, the king of tautologies. And it rings true with our baby monitor. Turns out, its hard to know what to look for in a monitor before using one for a while. For instance, we didn't know that our monitor has a mute setting, and we learnt the hard way. The volume level of the receiver is displayed with 5 bars, and always defaults to 3 bars when powered on. Lights also flash on the receiver to visually indicate sound. Well, at about 5 one morning, we both woke up and realised we hadn't heard Jakob all night - and then noticed the lights flashing like fireworks. One bar was showing on the display, but the receiver was actually set to mute. Now, I can imagine that having a visual-only option has it's value, but why oh why wouldn't the display say mute or have no bars showing??
And since Jakob was born we've gone through heaps of batteries. Fortunately, we've been stocking up on rechargeables, so we aren't literally piling up stacks of spent batteries, but nevertheless they are being drained all too often. In retrospect, it would have been awfully nice if the monitor (receiver and transmitter both) had built-in battery packs that charged automatically when plugged into an AC outlet, like our cordless phones or laptops. That would have also made the transmitter unit portable, so if Jakob fell asleep in his playpen (for instance) I could set it up to listen to him while I was, say, folding laundry upstairs.
While we were in Germany, Johannes borrowed a monitor (or baby phone, as it is called in Germany) from friends. Whereas our monitor repeats all sounds, and static when there is no sound to blare, this one only cut in when the sound was sustained. I liked it. I'm such a poor sleeper that I can only sleep with the monitor in our room if I'm wearing earplugs. Otherwise, I'm disturbed each time it changes channels (which it seems to do every few minutes). Plus, it plays all sounds, even isolated one-offs. The borrowed monitor only cut in if the sound was ongoing, so Jakob had to continuously make sounds for us to hear them, as he would if he needed attention. With our monitor, if he so much as sneezes in his sleep, we hear it. In retrospect, I would have chosen a monitor with the sort of sensitivity to discern between sustained sound rather than a scattershot approach of repeating all sounds.
All that said, the monitor we do have is remarkable in it's ability to pick up sounds. (Granted, that means it picks up the construction noise from outside, and the sound of hammering, etc., is amplified and echoed through the house...) That's a relief, and definitely something we were looking for. But, looking back, I wish we could have borrowed a couple of monitors for the first few weeks to help us decide what features we liked and didn't like before making our choice. (There's some advice for any parents-to-be!)
And since Jakob was born we've gone through heaps of batteries. Fortunately, we've been stocking up on rechargeables, so we aren't literally piling up stacks of spent batteries, but nevertheless they are being drained all too often. In retrospect, it would have been awfully nice if the monitor (receiver and transmitter both) had built-in battery packs that charged automatically when plugged into an AC outlet, like our cordless phones or laptops. That would have also made the transmitter unit portable, so if Jakob fell asleep in his playpen (for instance) I could set it up to listen to him while I was, say, folding laundry upstairs.
While we were in Germany, Johannes borrowed a monitor (or baby phone, as it is called in Germany) from friends. Whereas our monitor repeats all sounds, and static when there is no sound to blare, this one only cut in when the sound was sustained. I liked it. I'm such a poor sleeper that I can only sleep with the monitor in our room if I'm wearing earplugs. Otherwise, I'm disturbed each time it changes channels (which it seems to do every few minutes). Plus, it plays all sounds, even isolated one-offs. The borrowed monitor only cut in if the sound was ongoing, so Jakob had to continuously make sounds for us to hear them, as he would if he needed attention. With our monitor, if he so much as sneezes in his sleep, we hear it. In retrospect, I would have chosen a monitor with the sort of sensitivity to discern between sustained sound rather than a scattershot approach of repeating all sounds.
All that said, the monitor we do have is remarkable in it's ability to pick up sounds. (Granted, that means it picks up the construction noise from outside, and the sound of hammering, etc., is amplified and echoed through the house...) That's a relief, and definitely something we were looking for. But, looking back, I wish we could have borrowed a couple of monitors for the first few weeks to help us decide what features we liked and didn't like before making our choice. (There's some advice for any parents-to-be!)
posted by Melanie A at 8:58 p.m.
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