Baby Favorites: Part 1

I am going to try to review some items and tell you what my favorites are.  I'll see if I can start at what I loved for a newborn, 3 month old, 5 month old.. etc.  


Baby Monitor
I didn't think much about these things before I had Naomi.  Back when we went to Tahoe I noticed my brothers monitor that had a small video screen on it and I watched my nephew sleep.  I thought, oh that's neat!  And that's about all that ran through my head.

It was something like this from Summer.  Priced on Amazon for $105.

Then Jaren's sister mentioned how she had free Amazon one day shipping the week before we went into the hospital.  I told her I was pretty sure I wanted a video monitor.  She sent me a lot of links to different ones and their reviews.  They were all a bit spendy and I was looking for something somewhat like my brothers with that small screen.

Then I saw the 7 inch flat screen and Jaren was okay with the price. I didn't want to regret not getting the 7 inch and had already put out over 100 bucks only to want the bigger one and fork out the $160.  Totalling to almost $300.  So I bought it.

It was this monitor from Summer.  Priced at $161.98 on Amazon.

We didn't end up using it until I started laying her down for naps in our room and I fast realized how grateful I was for it.  Not just for the video, but for the big screen.  I put it on my mantle and can see it from across the room.  It wasn't until we had to send it in and replace it with a 5 inch T.V. like one that I appreciated the flat screen part.

The screen stopped working for some reason.  The sound worked fine, but I wanted what I paid for.  I sent an email to their customer service and found out the warranty is one year from date of purchase (if you have the reciept) or one year from manufacture date.  Well, I didn't have the receipt and luckily I was with in the year of manufacture date.  They sent me a label and I sent it in and had to wait a week for the new one.  Well, I'm a spoiled little girl and had to have my video monitor!  Jaren found a 5 inch T.V. like monitor at K-Mart for $70.  We bought and now Jaren's parents have it at their house for when she stays with them.  They had wonderful customer service - I just didn't like that I was stuck without a monitor for a week to two weeks (which was their estimated wait time).

This is the 5 inch monitor we bought as a replacement. $82.54 on Amazon.  It was much much bigger, a lot louder (not so good when I wanted it turned way down while we slept) and didn't have color.  Which wasn't too big of a deal.  The picture wasn't as clear and it had more "noise".  And you have to tune it like you did the old T.V.'s - kind of funny.

It was important to me to get her to have long naps (at least 2 hours) and to do that I would go in and replace the pacifier when she would start to wake up and she would quickly go right back to sleep.  Which led into solid 2 hour naps.  I also would be able to move the pacifier when it fell out of her mouth because she would lay her cheek on top of it and that would wake her up.  I also could see when she spit up (she had really bad reflux) and I could go in and get her cleaned up so she wasn't laying in the wet and it wasn't drying on her face.

My camera's shutter is too loud to take a picture while she is sleeping in there so I get my pictures this way. 

Not to mention that you can see what she is doing when she is crying.  If she is just doing it because she wanted me to come in or if something was really wrong.

Of course, I love it the most for the sole fact that I catch the funniest, sweetest moments.  It was worth every penny when I caught this (and this was the only time she did this):

Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes. The warranty is great, the picture is wonderful, the noise is perfect and only pick's up her noises.  Many times I've heard a noise and thought to run in until I look at the monitor and see that it's in her sleep or that she is fine.  It's easy to grab and move around.  You can by extra monitors or camera's if you'd like.  And we run this thing constantly (naps and sleep time) and it is still performing really well.  I'm sure I could get away with no video just fine, but I kind of like this way too much - so why go without it?  I love technology!