My Lil Divas are 5 and almost 4 and I still turn on the baby monitor every single night!
The last 2 nights it has really interfered with my sleep - picking up the sounds of Lil Diva snoring. I am a horribly light sleeper and I am thinking it's time to shut it off but just thinking about it made me feel panicked.
What if they need me and I can't hear them calling for me? Our rooms are fairly close together and on the same floor of the house but we close all the bedroom doors at night because the hubby gets up at 5am to go to work and I do not want them waking up at that hour because they hear him moving around downstairs.
I know you are sitting there probably thinking to yourself - they are old enough to come get you if they really need you! That makes perfect sense, I am just not sure it would work for my Lil Divas. My oldest is afraid of the dark and still wakes up some nights calling for me. She WILL NOT get out of bed and make the walk to my room in a dark house. She will scream until someone comes - waking up her sister who sleeps in the same room and everyone else in the house. The monitor lets me hear her quickly so that I can keep her from bellowing loud enough to wake her sister (and the neighbors).
Her night screams do not happen often but they do still occur and it's the main reason I have kept the monitor on this long. The other reason -
What if they are sick? There have been times when I have been alerted by the monitor that something was wrong that I am almost sure I would not have heard otherwise. My youngest has allergies and asthma and has woken up coughing and having difficulty breathing in the middle of the night. I was able to get to her quickly because I heard it via the monitor.
Does anyone else have this co-dependent relationship with their baby monitor? I can sit here all day coming up with more scenarios and rationalizing my continued use of it without any babies in the house but really the bottom line is that I'm just scared. Scared that I will fall into such noise free blissful sleep for the first time in over 5 years that I will not hear them if they did need me. That worries me.
When I worry, I can't sleep! So actually if I turned it off - I probably still wouldn't be able to sleep. I'd be too busy fine tuning my super sonic mom hearing all night to be sure everything was ok to actually get any sleep, lol!
What if I promise to turn it off before they hit the teenage years? Then again, a hidden baby monitor in a teenage girls room might be pretty awesome! :)
So help me out here mommys& daddys - when did you turn off your baby monitors for good?
Am I just being an over-protective mom or is this normal? (Someone please tell me I'm not that crazy, lol!)
Bern
I don't think you're crazy at all. Your reasons for keeping the monitor are valid reasons, and I would keep it too. My kids are upstairs and we are downstairs, so we will use our monitors for a long time to come. If your monitor is really disturbing your sleep, maybe you can turn it down or move it away from you a little bit so that you don't hear every sound, but could still hear coughs and screams?
ReplyDeleteMy kiddos are close to 5 years old and I still keep a monitor on. It is placed outside the rooms in a central location so I can hear anything that goes on. I would say to use it until you know 100% that you are ok with not having it on - and you will know when that time comes. Can you turn yours down? Test it turned down - have hubby or someone talk into the monitor or yell of something and see what volume you need to be able to hear what you need to hear.
ReplyDeleteYou know what? You just have to go with your own personal comfort level. I don't use baby monitors - but guess why? Because my babies sleep with me, so I have no need for them. Now...my own personal comfort level needs to have those little ones in my bed, especially newborns and infants. Just gotta have them next to me all night long. That is MY comfort level. And yours? You need to be able to hear your little ones while they are in their room sleeping. There's nothing wrong with that. Try turning your monitor down a bit, a little more each night...until your comfort level is barely audible, LOL. When I go to bed at night, I open up the bedroom doors. I close them during "lights out, get to bed" time. Even for the Hubs and me, I close the door for privacy when everyone is going to bed. But then later on, I get out of bed...and I walk around opening up bedroom doors. My own comfort level needs to have all doors open, including mine, so that I can "hear" every sneeze, cry or yawn.
ReplyDeleteI say just stay with your comfort level...just turn it down a bit so you can sleep better ;)
I don't think there is anything wrong with keeping them on as long as it's giving you a piece of mind. Our rooms are pretty close to the twins so when the monitor started picking up their tossing and turning and random little dreams it would keep me up. So I turned it off when they were just 9 months because I sleep so lightly now that when they do wake up in the other room even with the door shut I can hear them. If they were downstairs away from us I'd probably use a monitor for years. As of right now though, since they are so close and my mommy in me wakes me up at the slightest noise I have it off so I can sleep well enough for school in the mornings.
ReplyDeleteYou should do whatever makes you comfortable in your own home! :)
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I am with you! My husband tells me to turn it off all the time. We have 2 in our room - the baby on my side and the twins on his. I still make him turn it on every night. I can't stand the thought but they have no issues coming to us so I probably could. I think as long as you are comfortable -do what works!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're crazy if it makes you feel more comfortable!! I am now a little bit addicted to my video monitor, which is a new acquisition since having my younger daughter (7 months). But I will say that with my oldest daughter (2 years) I never used a monitor at night except for a few nights (mostly because our monitor was junky and would make crazy feedback noises and wake us up). We slept with her door closed and ours open, and even had a box fan on in our room on a medium setting, and I could still hear her when she called for me (and her room is down the hall). You are a mom and you will hear her your kids if they call you. You probably would be nervous for a few nights and not sleep well, but would get used to it. BUT, if you feel more comfortable having the monitor and it helps to keep them from waking each other up, I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping it either :)
ReplyDeleteI could not sleep with a monitor on...my kids are too noisy. Ours would light up when they would make noise and that would be enough to wake me up...not sure why but it did. New follower here via boost my blog
ReplyDeleteMine just turned 4 and I still have it in there... Not that I NEED to but it's just an assurance that all is ok... My oldest lost the monitors at 3 when little sis came a long. BUT I can hear my girls roll over... I am a super light sleeper now. As soon as the youngest might start to cry (bad dream) I hear it.. I guess it's a mommy thing-lol
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's 2 and I stopped monitoring her at 6 months (I know, I'm horrible, right?). But like you said, I'm a light sleeper and couldn't stand hearing every move. I still have the monitor on my 4 month old...I suppose I'll give her a few more months. ;)
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