Using Monitors

I hardly ever used monitors except if I was going to be in a far room or right outside while baby was napping, etc. "Mother's Instinct" always seems to kick in and I can hear my kiddos from anywhere at anytime! lol

We live in a big old house where you can't hear everything happening, but I stopped using a monitor at 6 months. My daughter is just fine.

Your 2-year-old will be fine, too.

If the bedrooms are close together you can put the monitor in the hallway. A family I know still uses one in the hallway and her girls are 10 and 8 years old. I stopped using the one for my son when he was able to come downstairs on his own.

I personally like having a monitor even if the childs room is close to yours. I would just use it till the baby came and then move it into the new room. You certainly do not need 2 monitors going. Why that would drive you nuts! lol!

S.

From what it sounds like, you don't really need the monitor in your son's room. As long as he can get to you, I wouldn't worry about. If it's only at night that you use one for him, then I wouldn't bother.

I quit using our monitor about 2-3 weeks after our son was born. I found out that I was a pretty light sleeper when it came to my kids. I hear every whimper. Plus, his bedroom was right across the hall. I never used one when my daughter was born. Again, that light sleeping and we now live in a small apartment. So, it really depends on you & when you feel comfortable stopping.

Hi R.,

We put our firstborn son in his new bedroom when he was only 23 months old to make way for little sis in the nursery. We all sleep upstairs, but I still wanted to have a monitor in both of their rooms. We only had a cheapo monitor in our son's room and it would periodically screech in the middle of the night until I couldn't take it anymore and just turned it off - never to go back on again. We thought we needed it (in case he woke up), but we really didn't. As others have said, he was old enough to get out of bed on his own and come find us if he needed to.

What is the purpose of the monitor for you? Is it to hear if your son wakes up in the middle of the night, or cries out for you during nap time while your downstairs, etc? For me, I didn't like the idea of my dd crying when she woke up and me not responding for a long time (say, if I was in the basement doing laundry). So, like someone else said, once she was old enough to come down on her own it was no longer needed. When they are newborns I thought it was more to make sure they don't stop breathing (SIDS).
It's totally up to you, but they certainly aren't something required to have, you can totally do without it altogether if you had to, so I'd say you'd be fine using it on the baby and not worrying about your son.
Blessings,
Lynn

I remember that dilemma. When my son was born and my daughter was 2 1/2 we debated about whether to buy a second monitor or not. We ended up moving the baby monitor into my son's room and she usually just comes to our room when she needs us. If not, she usually makes enough noise that it gets picked up by the monitor in his room because their rooms are across from each other. We have a baby gate at the top of the stairs so I don't have to worry about her wondering around the house at night and so far its worked out fine without the monitor in her room.

We have 2 monitors going and it's just fine. We have a very wild, curious, 2 year old, as well as a 14 month old (who just quit nursing), so it's necessary that we have both. Our master bedroom is downstairs, so I have no choice but to have these monitors, as both the kids are upstairs. I have no problem telling who is crying and who needs me since their cries are distinct. My only advice would be to keep both kids monitered for your own peace of mind, especially if the kids bedrooms are far from yours.