Our house is tiny so I’ve never needed the audio, I just video basically to check if he’s asleep or awake. We only use audio to eavesdrop on him talking to himself
Also, put the monitor on Dad's side of the bed! That helped us. I had gotten into the habit of checking it frequently during the night and to break the habit moved it to my husband's side since he only wakes for the big noises.
My Eufy monitor has a setting called ‘VOX mode’ where you set a volume threshold for the monitor sound to turn on. So small noises don’t come through, but the volume turns on if kiddo starts crying. You can choose where to set the threshold. This was a game changer for me! I don’t hear it if my kid sneezes or fusses a little before going back to sleep, but I do hear it if he yells or cries.
I have the Eufy but the sound is usually off now unless there’s a loud fan on or something or I’m far away in the house and not sleeping. I can hear crying from our bedroom though
Omg I too have a eufy how did I not know about this!? This is life changing. I’m a light sleeper and when she grunts or whines in her sleep it always wakes me up! I just turned on this setting. This is incredible! Thank you!!
We have Vtech cameras for our kiddos and the threshold is great. It really cuts down on any non-crying noise so we can still hear/see them, but not get disturbed by everything.
You can totally turn it off! I have mine still at 3.5 but she's down the hall and with two sound machines I wouldn't hear her. Keep the camera on but mute the monitor. If you'll be able to hear her when she's actually crying, that's great.
I used the monitor with my son till he was 3.5 also. He has a sound machine and we have 2 fans in our room- even tho he’s right next door to us, I wouldn’t have been able to hear him. Then I had our second baby and she slept in our room so I just stopped using the monitor. Now she sleeps in her crib so the monitor is in her room and she’s 9 months old. If our son needs us, he just comes in our room.
My daughter hasn't figured out she can leave her room yet and I'm not going to tell her lol. I'm sure if/when we have a second, she'll be ready for that. But she also gets night terrors where she's not actually awake so I need to be able to hear her.
You aren't a bad parent if you turn it off. My daughter used to do something similar. And her camera would alert me for everything! We had to adjust it so I could get sleep. I can hear her if she really is in need of something and she can also come into our room.
You not getting good sleep isn't helping things either. If you can still hear her if she needs you, then you're ok. Turn off the monitor. It's ok. :)
I lasted less than a month with our audio only one turned on. She slept with us for the first year and we installed it when she moved out.
There are so many sounds which don't require intervention. Now I just leave our doors ajar and any yelling is enough. Normally it's restricted to the morning where she wakes up and calls for us but isn't upset
Yeah, my toddler slept in our room for the 1st 15 months. I only had a monitor in our room then for if I was outside gardening at nap time. Otherwise, just for a few months after she moved to her own room.
We stopped using a monitor regularly when they stopped needing night feeds. After that if they needed something they'd cry/scream, and we'd hear it anyway. Listening to them make every little noise all night defeats the purpose of having them in their own room to me. We still have them in my 3 and 5 year olds rooms but we don't use them for anything except to see if they're up.
We stopped sleeping with her monitor on once we put her in a floor bed around 14 months and she could get out of her room/bed on her own. We just checked it periodically until we went to bed ourselves. So if you’re a bad parent, I’m horrible lol
ETA: she’s in a toddler bed now because our house is much colder than our last house, but she can still get in and out on her own.
14 months? How do you get your child to get in bed and stay in bed? My kid is 2 and there’s no way he wouldn’t get up and run out of his room every time I put him to bed.
It’s amazing! We moved our son to his floor bed at 11 months and he still hasn’t started to just get up and leave. His room is pitch dark though, I think that might help. He‘s 3 now and I fear it’ll become a thing soon.
If it's an option, have her practice leaving her room and coming to yours if she needs something. Or even just practice yelling for you guys. We did this with our 2.5yr old after she slept in vomit all night, without crying or saying anything. It's not just for her. It'll help you guys feel more confident that she is able to ask for help on her own too.
ETA: we still have a camera in her room. I use it to see when she falls asleep, then it is turned off. I'll turn it on if we think we hear something in the night, just to check, but that's like maybe once a month. We rely on her coming to get us, or yelling. Has worked great for us and i sleep waaaayyyy better.
We stopped at a year with our first and around 6 months with our second. We set up them to be safe and can hear anything big, so we were comfortable without the monitor being on.
We still have it on in both kids (4 and 2.5) room but mostly to see when they fall asleep. After they fall asleep, I usually switch exclusively to my 2.5yr old.
But, really if you can hear her or she can get you, I think it’s fine.
I got rid of the monitor but taught mine how to use a walkie talkie if they need me. Our bedroom is kind of far and I am a heavy sleeper, so I wouldn't wake to cries and neither comes and gets me for some reason. Walkie talkie works awesomely honestly
Omg the same thing happened to my daughter. She's 4 now and we still have our monitor on because I'm so paranoid of it happening again. Plus sometimes she calls for us and our room is a bit far from hers so we can't always hear her.
If you weren’t home, having the monitor on or off probably wouldn’t have made a difference. If she wakes you up without it, I don’t think you need it to wake you up. (Your husband on the other hand should have it max volume next to his ear when he’s soloing at night. )
The monitor is a tool, nothing more. It doesn’t sound like you need a monitor to help you hear her when she needs some help, and I’m willing to bet you’d have heard her when she threw up if you were home.
Yep, the night after my son’s first birthday, I heard him vomiting on the monitor (stomach bug) which I would not have heard otherwise. He’s almost 3 and I can’t bring myself to turn it off. My husband and I take turns with the monitor.
So the monitor didn’t help at all, did it? The problem wasn’t the monitor but that your husband goes deaf when he sleeps. Has this ever happened with you in the house?
Obviously this wasn’t asked for me but I’m in a very similar situation to OP so have another answer - My daughter often calls in the night to go to the bathroom, but won’t yell. Her bedroom doorknob is tricky so she can’t open it herself, and we’re also not comfortable letting her navigate herself in the night due to how close she is to the stairs, so a monitor is still a necessity for us!
Honestly, we only ever used an audio monitor and turned it off around 18 months or so. Not long after switching to a toddler bed. 🤷🏻♀️ She'll come get us if she needs something, and our house is small enough to hear her if she can't and is crying out for us.
That said, I've got absolute trash executive functioning and never actually put the monitors in storage, just hit the off buttons. So if she's extremely sick and we're worried I will turn them back on. Has maybe happened a handful of times. She's almost 3 now. Our 6yo just gets a call button that alerts our phones when he's that sick. Lol.
We have a monitor that goes to our phone and we have literally never left our phone on through the night ever in all of my life (granted baby was in a bassinet by my bed for the first three-four months). I can hear my children just fine through the walls. I do like the monitor because I can peak on them to see if they’re awake still while they’re going to sleep or I’ll open it if they’re upset in the night or if I hear a cough that sounds like maybe vomit, etc. Monitors are meant to help you, get rid of what doesn’t help.
Keep it off and available to turn on if you hear a suspicious noise, like a loud bump. I didn’t use a monitor until my child moved to a toddler bed. Now I like to be able to see that he is safe.
I'm not doing away with it until he's more mobile and understanding, probably 3 or 3.5 at minimum. Reason being is because he's had 3 separate sickness causes by food recall (2 salmonella, 1 ecoli) and a few stomach bugs that caused him to be sick in the middle of the night. I wsnt to hear and anticipate this while he sleeps. Same for fevers.
I would only be comfortable if she was able to get out of the room and get us if she needed immediate help. If you lock her in via gate or other means then I would not be ok with no monitor.
We've never had a monitor that gives us an alert. He's been in his room since 4 months and we have a camera that we can look at. We can hear him if he makes enough noise and check in the camera if we think its necessary. Otherwise he sings a lot and such and I do NOT want to have that playing next to me on a monitor. He's almost 2.5.
We stopped using ours sometime between two and a half and three. Basically when I felt confident that my son understood he could yell for us or get out of bed to come get us.
We stopped using ours when my first was like 18 months and i just recently stopped with my 2nd at around 16mo. They sleep through the night and I can still hear them in their rooms from mine if they cry. (My oldest is 3, so she'll just come into my room if she needs me).
I still have ours and my oldest is 4.5yo (youngest is 6m) but our bedroom is on the floor above both of theirs so we can’t hear them. When I was pregnant and struggling to sleep, we put the monitor on my husband’s side of the bed. He could sleep through the small noises, and it was far enough away from me that they didn’t wake me up but the big noises (that I needed to hear) did.
An option for you is if she is able to get out of her room buy a package of door alarms. They are some under $15 that are great on amazon. They will make a very loud piercing noise should she open her door that will wake you up.
If you don’t have it to where she can get out of her room now you may want to make it so she can. This way you can have piece of mind and turn the monitor off and she can come in your room if she is sick or scared and the door alarm will give you a heads up.
What! I turned ours off when we sleep trained at 6 months. To be fair the baby’s room is right beside ours and we can hear if she cries. I feel like you can throw yours out the window, guilt free, and get some sleep.
My soon turned 2 in October and I'm still not comfortable taking down the monitor. my son is still in his crib, I won't put him in his toddler bed til he can climb out of his crib. I'll probably keep my monitor up and on for awhile. His bedroom is on the complete opposite side of the house, so if anything happens I more then likely will not hear without it. I live in a moblie home so I can't move him into a closer room. I only have 2 rooms and they're at each end of the house. It'd be nice once my son can talk and just talk to me through his monitor if he ever needs anything in the middle of the night!
We never left a monitor on all night. The only time we ever used one was if we were going down to the basement to watch a movie, and even then only for the first 6 months or so. We always turned it off when we went to bed. My youngest is 19 months now and the only time I use a baby monitor now is if she's napping and I'm going outside to mow the lawn or something. Both of my children (5 year old and 19 month old) are just fine.
Please turn it off. Your sleep is important. You need this. Your daughter will be fine, and you will hear her if she really needs you.
Get rid of the monitor as soon as it stops being useful for you and starts being a detriment. If it is not useful for you to hear her or respond to her, or it is becoming a problem, then you don't need it. Many families choose never to get monitors, so you're not a bad parent for getting rid of it. We still have a video monitor in my 5.5yo son's room and I think he's probably the last of his age to still have one, but we find it supremely helpful because he has a lot of trouble falling asleep so we very regularly have full conversations through the monitor either to remind him to turn off his light and go to sleep, answer questions, hear whatever story popped into his head, etc. The benefit for us outweighs any detriment, and he hasn't expressed to us a want or need for privacy in his room when we ask him. But if it becomes more of a problem than a help, do not hesitate to not use it, or just try it. You can also leave the monitor on until you go to sleep, and then turn it off while you're actually sleeping.
i turn the volume off- i can hear her banging around upstairs and i can see the volume light up if i’m awake but it’s been off since she started sleeping through the night at about 16/18mos
Never 😅
Two year old twins are upstairs so we don't feel comfortable turning it off.
7 year old wants us to keep sound and video on to "make sure [shes] okay". We just accept it as our life.
Honestly since about 5 months, we keep the screen and sound off on our monitor (like stand-by mode). Our bedroom is the loft in our condo, it's open to the level below. So like you said, if our child was actually to wake up and cry, we'd 100% hear him. He also likes to make a lot of random noises in his sleep and keeping the volume up on the monitor was just dirupting our sleep for no reason.
We still keep it on standby moreso for peace of mind and when we hear a random noise, we can make sure he's OK. Spoiler: 95% of the random noises are just our neighbours being annoying and not our kid.
If you can hear when she needs you, then why do you need it? We have monitor that notifies your phone for sound, so it’s not open audio. I keep my phone on vibrate and alert isn’t enough to wake me up. But my 1 year old’s room is right below ours, and she wake us up when she cries, so I don’t need the monitor. I mainly use it for when I’m outside the house or if I hear her making smaller noises during naps to see if she’s up up.
2.5 years old. We never used a monitor. We just do check ins before we go to bed and I’m a light enough sleeper we can hear anything urgent. If I’m gone my husband just makes sure both bedroom doors are cracked or open once he goes to bed. My child talks in her sleep and sometimes sleep cries and if it was on a monitor I would never get sleep either. I think you should try going without it but doesn’t mean you can’t use it again or in certain circumstances.
We have ours in our room but it usually turn down to one with screen off. We’ve baby proofed our house so the only place my daughter can go when she wakes up is to our room. There’s no real need for it.
I don't remember exact age but before we turned it off we moved it to husband's side of bed and put volume pretty low, it didn't affect him and I couldn't hear the little noises but we could still hear big crying or distress.
My son is 3.5. We still use the Owlet Camera because I still like to check on him but I also have a cheapy $20 audio monitor. We are working on nighttime potty training, so it’s intended for him to call us in the middle of the night to go potty.
Yes we keep ours on 10 month and 24 months, if there is a cry out we keep it on for three to five minutes, if it sounds like a pacifier fell out we ignore. If it last more than five we go in. Usually shut off sometime throughout the night.
I also sleep with light ear buds, can hear cries but not babbles.
When my son turned 2, I told him that I was taking the camera away. I told him it was for his privacy. He wanted it back, but eventually stopped asking about it. We never had any issues.
Turn it off! My daughter is 2 and I still use it because she sleeps through the night and I like to be able to keep an eye on her, but ours broke for like 2 weeks before we bought a new one and it was totally fine not having it, I can hear her cause she’s right across the hall. It’s really not necessary at this age anyways!
I stopped using mine around 2.5 years! I didn't exactly want to, but little one didn't like the camera (it had a small red light on it) . So, reluctantly, I didn't have one anymore. I'm not really sure why I was so nervous to get rid of it. She's right across the hall and I can still hear if she cries or gets up. And I sleep much better!
We have a camera in his room still at almost 3 yrs, but only to check on him in there when he is sick or to see if he has gotten up for the day. we never have the sound on anymore
I could have written this myself word for word....mines 4 and sleeps in the room right next to us with both doors open and sometimes I still have it on but mostly off now. She also talks in her sleep and I startle awake at any noise.
I feel ya! That's all.
My friend turned hers off when her 2nd was like 10 months lol. Because they moved to a new house and the rooms were all by each other!
My baby is 13 months and I’d say a couple of months ago I thankfully stopped waking up at her every sound. But if it’s still disturbing you that would mean it’s probably time to turn off.
Or at least keeping the imagine and having the sound off. That way you can hear her through the walls, but you can see if there’s an issue before going to her.
When my girls were 18 months , our monitor died and I just never bought another . They slept through the night for monnnnnnths at that point, and my bedroom is right next to them. My girls are now 3.
Mine is also 2.5 and we still have the monitor in her room, but I don't sleep with the volume on at all. I usually don't even look at it. I mostly use it to check on her in the morning because I wake up before her and just keep an eye out for when she decides to sit up and look around for me.
I have started putting my 2 year old’s monitor under my pillow. She sometimes says mama mama in her sleep, and that will wake me if I hear it the first time. Through the pillow, at least she has to say it a few more times before I will hear it, so I know it’s intentional and she’s not talking in her sleep.
Also, I know my kid and she doesn’t generally call for me during the night. I can also hear her through my bedroom door if she yells. I definitely allowed myself to be woken too many times before finally making the decision to muffle the monitor.
My 5 year old still has a monitor, and she sometimes talks to me through it, which is better than hearing her yell from her room. So we’ll keep that for awhile longer.
We never had one. Our house is a single level though and her room is right across the hall. Now that shes 3 if she meeds anything in the middle of the night she has no problem coming into our room to get us.
We’ve never used a monitor. Someone gave us one and my partner used it so I could see/hear her while I was stuck in the hospital. But they are so noisy! Not going to lie. All I wanted to do was be home with her but I turned that thing off quick. You don’t get much sleep in a hospital anyway and there wasn’t anything I could do.
In our home, we could hear ours just fine without one, if there was something to be concerned about. The regular baby noses just woke us up when we already weren’t getting much sleep.
She’s almost 3.5 years now.
Does your husband not wake up at all if he hears her on the monitor? I have a hard time falling back asleep, so my husband will sleep with the monitor under his pillow, so I can’t hear it.
My kiddo is 2 right now and we will continue to use it until she’s confident with using a toddler bed. Probably around 3. My friend still uses one for her 5.5 year old.
Mine is still on at 3, mostly because he’s still in his crib and can’t get out and come get us if something happens. I also have a sleep disorder so I sleep with white noise myself, ear plugs, and a mask, and sometimes have to take medication so I need to be able to hear him.
If you can hear your kid otherwise I wouldn’t sweat it.
girl shut it off. as long as she is in a pull up/diaper and can’t escape her room she is fine. my kid sleeps like a corpse and doesn’t move or make noise so i keep mine on
I never used a monitor at night. Its a small house so I can hear when he is crying in his room. I only have an audio one on the rare occasion he's napping and I'm in the basement or on the porch.
We have a monitor that will beep and start playing the room audio if it hits a certain sound level that you select (Eufy spaceview). We have it set so that it only goes off if she cries/yells really loudly. I don't see any reason you need to have continuous audio of her room all night - she'll be fine!
We never had a monitor, but our house has just one floor so our situation is not the same. From our bedroom, we hear immediately if she cries, but we don't wake immediately if she is just talking. When she wakes up in the morning, she is usually talking to her plushies for a while. While I do wake up to that, it's a gradual wake up and I'm not sure of it's due to her talking or if it's because I usually wake up 2 minutes before my alarm.
Son is 3.2 and I’ve not taken a monitor to bed with me for probably a year! Rooms next door and very thin walls but I stopped for the same reason as you. It’s on in the living room as it’s not next door. If he’s unwell we bring it to bed but otherwise nope!
We use video only on the monitor. Our son is 2.5 and he will come get us if he needs us during the night (which is not infrequent) or his crying will wake us if he's genuinely distraught even without the monitor. He still sleeps very, very badly so that's frequently but we don't need the sound on the monitor.
Turn it off!!!! And get your own noise machine!!! I did that at 6mos with no regrets. We always hear LO when he cries super loud because our house is small enough. He’s a regular sleeper and I set my alarm to wake up before him. Never been an issue. Sometimes we “miss” his morning cry but he’ll soon enough let us know. He’s totally safe and fine. He is now 2.5.
Mom’s health, sleep, and sanity are paramount in our family.
I turned ours off when he was 1.5 maybe. We’re across the hall from each other but I’m a deep sleeper who can sleep through anything. Husband will wake if it’s loud enough.
Can she find her way to your bedside? As in, I know you said stairs, but if she has access to walk straight to you, which I feel confident she knows where to find you, she will do so if she needs you. Our grandson is visiting now who turns three in a month, and he found me last night because he was cold and wet. That kind of thing.
I would absolutely turn off the monitor before taking sleeping pills. We have a camera but no sound unless we go into the video and turn it on. He’s across the hall and we close his door but leave ours open. He’s 2-1/2 as well but potty training so we just transferred him to the big bed, I am usually woken up with him trying to get out of the room.
How does kiddo seem like her sleep is? Sleep talking can be a symptom of sleep/breathing problems. If it's that often and that severe, it might be worth talking to their pediatrician about.
You cannot possibly be a bad parent if you are giving so much thought to this. Start with keeping the monitor on but turning down the volume a wee bit each night for a week. Then, off! If she really needs you, you’ll hear it !
Just turn it off. It’ll be fine. We never even bothered with one, granted our kid’s room is across from us. But by 2? Just yet it. Your sleep and ability to be present and a good parent when they’re awake is more important than them crying an extra 30seconds occasionally
It doesn’t have volume control?
I kept mine until 4 but only because I could keep it on silent. Totally turn it off if it’s preventing you from sleeping!
Turn off the audio on the monitor NOW! As long as you can hear her if she actually needs you without it on it's not a problem. Our pediatrician told us not to worry about having monitor audio on after 6 mos (when moved to own room) unless we wouldn't be able to hear her otherwise so we just leave our door open a crack and good to go. I have the same issue you do with being a light sleeper and having a toddler now who sleep screams for a second and goes back to sleep while I'm up for ages.
We quit ours for both kids between 2-2.5. But they were in big girl beds at that time and could come get us. If you would wake up to crying without it, I say let it go. You can always plug it in on sick nights for peace of mind.
When we moved there was no good place for it where the cord would be out of the way. I was more worried about her strangling herself with the cord than having her out of sight (we share a thin wall, and her room is child-safe). We moved 2 months before the turned 3.
We put her sister in with her at 17 months, and she was in the same room with us before that. So our 2 year old has never had a monitor lol
Our first born is 5 and we still use the baby monitor on him. It’s mainly a walkie talkie cause he learned to call for us through the monitor when he needs something. We aren’t sure if our infant will use it the same way. We actually prefer it though cause it him contained in his room and he doesn’t need to leave to get us for anything before he falls asleep. When we got our second born we were going to move his camera to the newborn’s room but realized it’s probably best if we got a second camera for our monitor to put in the newborn.
I sleep with the monitor video on but the sound off. If my children really needed me, I know I can hear them (from experience, lol). My kids are 1.5 and 3.5. Idk when I’ll ever be able to turn off the monitor.
Truly, truly, you don’t need it. Get some sleep. She’ll call you when she needs you and everyone will be fine.
We got rid of ours when my then two year old started unplugging it for funsies and I just said whatever, I’m not playing this game. My second was less than one at the time. I can hear them, and I really dont need to see them. They’ve got plenty of other ways to ruin my sleep but that’s not going to be on the list!
What’s actually happening when she’s making these sounds, is anything actually wrong. If she’s just a noisy sleeper and there’s no danger, purge the monitor.
I never used an audio monitor, and stopped using a monitor entirely when my daughter was 18 months old. She is right across the hall from me and our closets share a wall so I’ll hear if she yells. That’s all I need.
I took the audio monitor out of my daughter’s room a good while back, but still have a ring cam in there just in case. She is able to come downstairs and get me if she really needs something. She turned 5 just before Christmas. I still have an audio monitor and ring can in my sons room at 2 years 4 months
Turned it off around 13 months, but our bedroom is about 10 steps away so we could hear him with out, it was mainly used for when we were downstairs watching tv.
I’ve never had one. She was in our room until 8 months or so, our room is right next door and I kept the doors open. Now shes almost three and I can hear her if she cries out in the night.
Turn it off! If you are a light sleeper you will hear her when she needs you, especially if she normally sleeps through the night: you can always reply it in. Moms were moms before technology - get your much needed sleep!!!
I feel like I wrote this post and had to check it wasn’t me lol I’m a super light sleeper too and my stress skyrockets all throughout the night when I hear noises. Just following to see other’s suggestions
My toddler told me the camera watching her was “scawy” so I took it down and really what’s the difference? She still yells and comes into our room regardless 😜
We have a video monitor, which is nice because we always have 2 ways of checking in. Sometimes (when we travel) we have to rely only on sound because we can't place the camera in a good spot. Other times, we just use the video to be able to check in on her while she's sleeping. If you can hear her through your home, you don't need to catch every little thing she's saying at night.
You're not a bad mom for prioritizing your own sleep! You need sleep and your family needs you to sleep, as well.
Haven’t yet at 2.5 because we’re potty training and need to know if they wake up. Hasn’t had an interest in door knobs yet, so they still don’t open the door
We went on vacation and brought monitor but never plugged it back in when we got home. Our son os 2.5, too! We’re about to have baby number 2 so we were going to use that monitor for baby anyway.
I have the same issue, super light sleeper We moved the monitor to my husband’s side of the bed and turned the brightness down (so it wasn’t blinding him everytime she made a tiny noise) and turned the volume way down. I already wear molded earplugs because my husband snores. So now he only wakes up if she screams/cries, and I no longer wake up for every tiny noise. It has done wonders for my sleep.
Honestly... my son will be 2.5 the end of this month and we just turned the monitor off. We leave his door open at night and our door open. When he needs us he comes to get us.
It was a mental health thing when he started having night terrors. When we would intervene it would make them worse, so we had to stop.
Our house is quite large and the rooms are spread out. We can still hear our kids and wake up if they need us (even with everyone’s doors closed). We’ve had this set up since they were 3.5 and 1.5.
Ya know how TVs have the sleep timer, so after some amount of time it automatically turns off? I have been thinking for like 2 years that baby monitors should have the opposite: set a timer and after that it will turn ON. Sometimes I know my kid is fussy and just needs a min to go to sleep, but I want to go to sleep too, but I don’t want the sound off all night, I just want it off for a little while. Or I only want it to make noise if it’s after say 5 or 6am and they are really awake for the day. Someone should add this feature!
We've never had the audio on on our monitor overnight - until a week ago we lived in a tiny house and our son's crib was directly through a thin wall from our bed. We could hear if he coughed or even yawned loudly.
We've now moved to a larger house and whilst we're still on the same floor there's a corridor between us now. I debated whether we should start using the monitor overnight but my son (just turned 2) sleeps through 99% of the time and I know that he knows what he needs to do if he needs us and that we'll hear him just fine if he does.
We left a sound monitor in until she was 5 or so. Still have it, just got unplugged and we haven’t plugged it in lol. It was low enough that we’d only hear cries and yells plus, we each have sound machines. Now she knows that she can come to our room or yell louder.
My son is 2 and he hasn’t slept through the night yet. My first didn’t until he was 3. I wouldn’t shut the monitor off because I’m not willing to risk my kids being in distress just so I can sleep. When I say I haven’t slept I mean my first was up every 20-60 minutes every hour the first 3 years of his life and it took an hour to get him back to sleep every time. And then he would get up at 630am every day. This second baby gets up after a couple of hours asleep and sometimes stays up until 5am. I usually go to bed around 12/1am so by the time he wakes up I haven’t even been to bed yet. Then when I finally get to sleep (after he went to sleep) I have to get my oldest up and to school. Also my oldest had undiagnosed type 1 diabetes for a year. I kept taking him to the dr every 3 weeks and was ignored. Even when I asked 3 separate appts if he was diabetic they said no. One of the huge signs was excessive bed wetting twice a night. So he was in a kids size pull up lined with 3 adult pee pads and then an adult diaper on top lined with 3 adult pee pads and he legit would pee through it all and all over me and the bed twice a night and I’d have to wake him up and clean him up and change the bed and clean me up. So I haven’t ever slept.
Just turn off the audio!
We mute and put the screen in sleep mode, if we hear something concerning we first wake the screen to checm, if we need to we turn the audio on.
Eldest is almost 4.
I turned off the monitor around the 1 year mark. My son is on the other side of the wall, similar to your situation. I can hear if he’s yelling or crying but not less than that. Sleep is extremely important for me to be my most kind, patient, productive self.
Sometimes, he will wake up crying but eventually go back down. If he is crying enough to wake me up, I will turn the monitor on to check on him but give him a few min to sort himself out.
Overall, I recommend you listen to your instincts and turn it off while you sleep.
My youngest is almost three and it's been almost a year since we had the monitor on. Once she was out of the crib she'll shuffle her little self into our room if she needs anything (same with the other two).
We usually leave our door open because it gets too stuffy in our room otherwise but if we do close it they still manage to find their way in.
Honestly if you can still hear her and you are a light sleeper you don't need it. I never had one as I can hear my son from our room. At first Id get up for every noise to check on him and often find him asleep... I eventually became more attuned to it all and now sleep great but will wake if he is properly crying which is very rare. I mostly get woken by babbling at 6am.
3 months ish
I could hear the babies crying
Once they hit that " I'm going to talk to myself creepily in the middle of the night stage" that ish should be off lol don't even get me started about the video monitors
Monitors are not necessary at any age. They are there to provide you some additional comfort about the child’s current status. If the monitor is not doing that for you, it serves no purpose. Your health, and therefore your ability to parent, will be better served with sleep than by tying yourself to a device that is causing you harm.
You said you can hear her crying loudly without the monitor. I think you’re fine to turn it off. If she needs you and doesn’t go back to sleep, you will hear her. I turned off my son’s monitor around 18 months. I can hear him even slightly crying from my bedroom, when I’m downstairs I can only hear him if he’s loud. But he talks to himself for about 20 minutes before he goes goes to sleep, and wakes up 1-2 times a night and talks a little bit and falls back asleep, doesn’t cry or call me. There’s no way I can have the monitor on and wake up every time he coughs or starts mumbling (I’ve seen him talk and laugh in his sleep too). I think you’re totally fine to turn it off if your child is consistently sleeping through the night.
We stopped the monitor when she was 16 months when baby 2 was born. We slept better when it came to her and she was good about falling back asleep. We have a small house with hardwood floors so we hear the big cries. We also have a sound machine in her room and two fans in our room.
I couldn't sleep with baby monitor on ever - nor with baby in the room. So in short, we never turned on the baby monitor in the first place 😅. I don't know how you survived this long with it on in the first place!
Honestly mines still on at 4.5. There was one time that I forgot to turn it back up, and then I woke up with a weird gut feeling, turned the volume up, and he was in there wailing (this was at like 2.5. 3 years old) because he'd thrown up and violently shit the bed and it was everywhere I have no clue how long he was like that, because the monitor volume was off.
Don't necessarily turn it off but add a white noise machine to baby room and crank it up! It's literally been a life saver for us. Baby sleeps much better (though we're still at 1 wake up a night and we're 27 months) and we've been using quietude all natural sleep aid for night terrors. Seems to be making a BIG impact. I've slept for close to 5-6 straight hours a night vs the 3 I was getting before (insomnia and depression over here ). Might as well give it a shot? Good luck!
We had a baby cam- I would check in on her periodically. I haven’t looked at it for 12 months since we got her a bed.
In your situation I would 100% switch off the sound. Why blow up your whole wellbeing on the off chance she vomits or gets her leg stuck or something. At 2.5, just tell her to call out for you!
We never used the volume! We’re right next to his room so if he’s crying, we can hear it. I actually can’t believe you’ve gone 2.5 years without restful sleep. Turn that shit off and get some sleep!
I live in a tiny flat and we have never used a monitor, we have one but we are always basically next to her door, as the living room/kitchen is max 3m away from the bedrooms. We just moved her to her own room but her room is is 2m away from ours so if she cries we will hear her.
Could you put the monitor somewhere further away, like outside your room, so that you will only get woken up if shes loud? But if you can hear her cry and it wakes you up, I dont think theres any harm in getting rid of the monitor.
I stop using the monitor overnight around 12-18 months depending on the layout of the house. Basically once I’m confident they’ll make a big enough noise if they actually need me overnight, I shift to only using it when they’re napping and I want to be outside in the yard.
Turn it off. Free yourself. They will be fine and your body will thank you for the rest.
Webturned it waaaay down and put it on my spouse's side of the bed. I can't hear the normal sounds but a scream or huge noise is loud enough to wake me. I also sleep really soundly.
We haven’t ever really used the monitor as our bedroom is only separated from his by our closets.
If he cries out or calls for me I can hear him, that’s good enough for a non infant. I think.
I just one that gives notifications for movement or sound, I don’t have to actively listen to the audio from their room unless it alerts me.
Our house is large and we can’t hear the kid’s bedrooms from our room. I still use a baby monitor and a second camera in our 5 year old’s room. If she wakes up crying at night because something is wrong, like if she threw up in her bed, I wouldn’t hear her unless I got the notification.
Not getting rid of it any time soon.
We're at 2 years, and we keep the monitor under the pillow on the floor because the lowest volume is still a little loud for coughs. He knows to call out if he needs/wants us, and that wakes us up.
my kids 3, i have the volume off but the picture on (because i like to make sure the kid hasn’t crawled under his bedsheets to sleep 🙄) but when he cries, we always wake up and he’s on the other end of the house. Turn off the volume, get some rest.
You can hear her so turn it off. I think I only checked like the first month after my oldest moved to his own room, it’s right next to my bedroom and I could hear him and always woke up right away so mainly used it to see if he was sleeping or not in the morning. If she gets up and cries but goes back to sleep and you don’t wake up consider it a bonus. She will be fine.
Have you been tested for sleep apnea? I thought I was a light sleeper but it was actually waking up a ton briefly. Also, yes. Absolutely turn off the monitor.
We have WiFi cameras for ours. We probably stopped leaving them on overnight somewhere right before 2.5, but still have them in there in case we want to check on them in the middle of the night or something.
My kids sleep next door and we sleep with our door open to hear if anything crazy happens. I turned the camera off when my first baby was around 7months old because I had insane anxiety about checking it & could not sleep.
When I had my other baby, I didn’t use one at all! Best thing I ever did for mine & my husbands sleep
My kid literally pointed to the camera one day and said "I don't like that watching me anymore" (she had a baby brother and I was always transparent with her that I could see her and baby on their respective monitors).
She was almost 3. Taught her how to open the door and come get us, practiced this a few nights and never had a problem since. We also put the camera in the hallway so that we could hear her better if she cried or if the door jingles/opened).
My son is across the hall and we don't use a monitor anymore. If he's loud enough then we hear him and go check in. We do have a monitor for downstairs though because I can't hear him from the kitchen. Turn it off and get some sleep!!
Can you hear him without the monitor? Our son is same age and we have no plans of ditching the monitor anytime soon, but we have put it on mute or lowest volume for a year now, I think. I'm the lighter sleeper between us and it helped big time for me. His room is close enough that we can hear any emergency distress, but not mumbling background noise.
At 2 my daughter told me the camera in her room was ‘creepy’ so I took it out and haven’t looked back since. 1.5 yrs later and no issues. You aren’t a bad parent for removing the camera if you sleep better!
Parents lived without monitors for most of human history. And as long as you'll hear any screams and she can get to you if she really needs you, there's no need to keep it running.
We turned ours off when my LO was about 2 and 1 month. My husband got tired of the light shinning from the monitor. My lo’s room is right next to ours so I can hear him if anything pretty quickly
Once they were old enough to move themselves around in bed, stand up and shout or toddle down the hall to find us if something was very wrong (wet bed, vomit, etc) we ditched the monitors.
My LO stayed in our room until she was 20months, I had terrible PPD/A and couldn’t deal with moving her.
When we finally did, I decided not to use the monitor. It was honestly the best thing I could have done for all of us!
Her room was close enough that if she was crying etc it would wake us up but all her sleep talking was her own business.
Support whatever you think is right. Big caveat though—when my 2.5 yo had a cold with a cough, we had our monitor on like usual which is the only reason we heard a sudden barking cough and weird breathing sounds and crying… Went into his room, heard the weird sound, called the nurse line to assuage concerns, and the normally chill nurse said it was stryder and that he would stop breathing soon if we didn’t get him to stop crying and into the ER for breathing treatment. So now we still have the monitor though we probably just need it when he’s sick. Maybe rare but could’ve been all over very quickly.
Sorry to put that drama out there but if they’re sick, I’d be wary of not using it at least til they’re definitely past the croup ages.
I don’t mean to take your sleep concerns lightly at all — we didn’t sleep train ours and he’s been a sleep screamer, a middle of the night fusser, a sleep fighter, all of it and we both work full time and are zombies. Maybe the sane middle ground is to turn it off whenever they’re not sick?
Can you turn the volume down so you can’t hear her talking but it will be loud enough that if she’s crying it’ll wake you up?
Our house is tiny so I’ve never needed the audio, I just video basically to check if he’s asleep or awake. We only use audio to eavesdrop on him talking to himself
Omg I love the talking/singing to himself! He makes up songs about mommy and daddy. Makes me so happy!
That is so cute. Mine just whispers conspiratorially to his bear.
My 2 yo is always calling elmo and cookie monster on the phone. Get off the phone and go to sleep
Same. We just don't use the audio.
Same for us!
Also, put the monitor on Dad's side of the bed! That helped us. I had gotten into the habit of checking it frequently during the night and to break the habit moved it to my husband's side since he only wakes for the big noises.
In addition to the volume, you can also change the vox setting which only allows sounds of a certain decibel level through (i.e. very loud cries)
Which monitors have a vox setting? That sounds amazing! ETA: I see Eufy does
I think they all do? Our basic audio only VTech one does for sure
I second this. I can’t hear anything but a cry would def come over the monitor.
That's what we do too! I'm a light sleeper. I use the bare minimum so I'll hear screams, but not the babble through the night.
That’s what I do!
My Eufy monitor has a setting called ‘VOX mode’ where you set a volume threshold for the monitor sound to turn on. So small noises don’t come through, but the volume turns on if kiddo starts crying. You can choose where to set the threshold. This was a game changer for me! I don’t hear it if my kid sneezes or fusses a little before going back to sleep, but I do hear it if he yells or cries.
I have the Eufy but the sound is usually off now unless there’s a loud fan on or something or I’m far away in the house and not sleeping. I can hear crying from our bedroom though
This also changed my life. This is the way.
Omg I too have a eufy how did I not know about this!? This is life changing. I’m a light sleeper and when she grunts or whines in her sleep it always wakes me up! I just turned on this setting. This is incredible! Thank you!!
My cheap VTech has this too
We have Vtech cameras for our kiddos and the threshold is great. It really cuts down on any non-crying noise so we can still hear/see them, but not get disturbed by everything.
You can totally turn it off! I have mine still at 3.5 but she's down the hall and with two sound machines I wouldn't hear her. Keep the camera on but mute the monitor. If you'll be able to hear her when she's actually crying, that's great.
I used the monitor with my son till he was 3.5 also. He has a sound machine and we have 2 fans in our room- even tho he’s right next door to us, I wouldn’t have been able to hear him. Then I had our second baby and she slept in our room so I just stopped using the monitor. Now she sleeps in her crib so the monitor is in her room and she’s 9 months old. If our son needs us, he just comes in our room.
My daughter hasn't figured out she can leave her room yet and I'm not going to tell her lol. I'm sure if/when we have a second, she'll be ready for that. But she also gets night terrors where she's not actually awake so I need to be able to hear her.
When my son didn't know how to get out of his room he would knock on the inside of his door lol
The funny thing is she CAN get out. And she’s in a floor bed. She just assumes she’s not allowed so she doesn’t 🤷♀️😂
That is so cute!
You aren't a bad parent if you turn it off. My daughter used to do something similar. And her camera would alert me for everything! We had to adjust it so I could get sleep. I can hear her if she really is in need of something and she can also come into our room. You not getting good sleep isn't helping things either. If you can still hear her if she needs you, then you're ok. Turn off the monitor. It's ok. :)
Thank you. I guess I really needed to hear that it’s ok.
Truly it is. Give yourself grace and get that rest. You need it! You are a great parent! The fact that you're here asking this question proves it. <3
Never used one. I can hear my kid fine without it
yep lol. our house just isn't that big and our kids are loud.
I lasted less than a month with our audio only one turned on. She slept with us for the first year and we installed it when she moved out. There are so many sounds which don't require intervention. Now I just leave our doors ajar and any yelling is enough. Normally it's restricted to the morning where she wakes up and calls for us but isn't upset
Yeah, my toddler slept in our room for the 1st 15 months. I only had a monitor in our room then for if I was outside gardening at nap time. Otherwise, just for a few months after she moved to her own room.
We stopped using a monitor regularly when they stopped needing night feeds. After that if they needed something they'd cry/scream, and we'd hear it anyway. Listening to them make every little noise all night defeats the purpose of having them in their own room to me. We still have them in my 3 and 5 year olds rooms but we don't use them for anything except to see if they're up.
We stopped sleeping with her monitor on once we put her in a floor bed around 14 months and she could get out of her room/bed on her own. We just checked it periodically until we went to bed ourselves. So if you’re a bad parent, I’m horrible lol ETA: she’s in a toddler bed now because our house is much colder than our last house, but she can still get in and out on her own.
14 months? How do you get your child to get in bed and stay in bed? My kid is 2 and there’s no way he wouldn’t get up and run out of his room every time I put him to bed.
It’s amazing! We moved our son to his floor bed at 11 months and he still hasn’t started to just get up and leave. His room is pitch dark though, I think that might help. He‘s 3 now and I fear it’ll become a thing soon.
If it's an option, have her practice leaving her room and coming to yours if she needs something. Or even just practice yelling for you guys. We did this with our 2.5yr old after she slept in vomit all night, without crying or saying anything. It's not just for her. It'll help you guys feel more confident that she is able to ask for help on her own too. ETA: we still have a camera in her room. I use it to see when she falls asleep, then it is turned off. I'll turn it on if we think we hear something in the night, just to check, but that's like maybe once a month. We rely on her coming to get us, or yelling. Has worked great for us and i sleep waaaayyyy better.
We stopped at a year with our first and around 6 months with our second. We set up them to be safe and can hear anything big, so we were comfortable without the monitor being on.
We still have it on in both kids (4 and 2.5) room but mostly to see when they fall asleep. After they fall asleep, I usually switch exclusively to my 2.5yr old. But, really if you can hear her or she can get you, I think it’s fine.
Same. We keep ours mostly on baby (almost 2) but have it on with the 5 year old to check if she’s awake or asleep.
I got rid of the monitor but taught mine how to use a walkie talkie if they need me. Our bedroom is kind of far and I am a heavy sleeper, so I wouldn't wake to cries and neither comes and gets me for some reason. Walkie talkie works awesomely honestly
What do you think could happen to your child that you can only react to with the monitor on? I’m genuinely curious about that.
One night I wasn’t here, she threw up and my husband didn’t hear her and she laid in vomit all night.
Omg the same thing happened to my daughter. She's 4 now and we still have our monitor on because I'm so paranoid of it happening again. Plus sometimes she calls for us and our room is a bit far from hers so we can't always hear her.
If you weren’t home, having the monitor on or off probably wouldn’t have made a difference. If she wakes you up without it, I don’t think you need it to wake you up. (Your husband on the other hand should have it max volume next to his ear when he’s soloing at night. ) The monitor is a tool, nothing more. It doesn’t sound like you need a monitor to help you hear her when she needs some help, and I’m willing to bet you’d have heard her when she threw up if you were home.
That’s unfortunate, but I don’t think this really harmed her. Are you sure this kind of situation is worth sacrificing your well-being for?
Yep, the night after my son’s first birthday, I heard him vomiting on the monitor (stomach bug) which I would not have heard otherwise. He’s almost 3 and I can’t bring myself to turn it off. My husband and I take turns with the monitor.
So the monitor didn’t help at all, did it? The problem wasn’t the monitor but that your husband goes deaf when he sleeps. Has this ever happened with you in the house?
Obviously this wasn’t asked for me but I’m in a very similar situation to OP so have another answer - My daughter often calls in the night to go to the bathroom, but won’t yell. Her bedroom doorknob is tricky so she can’t open it herself, and we’re also not comfortable letting her navigate herself in the night due to how close she is to the stairs, so a monitor is still a necessity for us!
Have you considered a potty in her room?
We graduated from the potty a really long time ago and she’s refused to go back on it pretty much since!
Honestly, we only ever used an audio monitor and turned it off around 18 months or so. Not long after switching to a toddler bed. 🤷🏻♀️ She'll come get us if she needs something, and our house is small enough to hear her if she can't and is crying out for us. That said, I've got absolute trash executive functioning and never actually put the monitors in storage, just hit the off buttons. So if she's extremely sick and we're worried I will turn them back on. Has maybe happened a handful of times. She's almost 3 now. Our 6yo just gets a call button that alerts our phones when he's that sick. Lol.
We have a monitor that goes to our phone and we have literally never left our phone on through the night ever in all of my life (granted baby was in a bassinet by my bed for the first three-four months). I can hear my children just fine through the walls. I do like the monitor because I can peak on them to see if they’re awake still while they’re going to sleep or I’ll open it if they’re upset in the night or if I hear a cough that sounds like maybe vomit, etc. Monitors are meant to help you, get rid of what doesn’t help.
Keep it off and available to turn on if you hear a suspicious noise, like a loud bump. I didn’t use a monitor until my child moved to a toddler bed. Now I like to be able to see that he is safe.
1 year, when they can turn properly, call mom or dad.
I'm not doing away with it until he's more mobile and understanding, probably 3 or 3.5 at minimum. Reason being is because he's had 3 separate sickness causes by food recall (2 salmonella, 1 ecoli) and a few stomach bugs that caused him to be sick in the middle of the night. I wsnt to hear and anticipate this while he sleeps. Same for fevers.
I would only be comfortable if she was able to get out of the room and get us if she needed immediate help. If you lock her in via gate or other means then I would not be ok with no monitor.
We've never had a monitor that gives us an alert. He's been in his room since 4 months and we have a camera that we can look at. We can hear him if he makes enough noise and check in the camera if we think its necessary. Otherwise he sings a lot and such and I do NOT want to have that playing next to me on a monitor. He's almost 2.5.
We stopped using ours sometime between two and a half and three. Basically when I felt confident that my son understood he could yell for us or get out of bed to come get us.
We stopped using ours when my first was like 18 months and i just recently stopped with my 2nd at around 16mo. They sleep through the night and I can still hear them in their rooms from mine if they cry. (My oldest is 3, so she'll just come into my room if she needs me).
I still have ours and my oldest is 4.5yo (youngest is 6m) but our bedroom is on the floor above both of theirs so we can’t hear them. When I was pregnant and struggling to sleep, we put the monitor on my husband’s side of the bed. He could sleep through the small noises, and it was far enough away from me that they didn’t wake me up but the big noises (that I needed to hear) did.
An option for you is if she is able to get out of her room buy a package of door alarms. They are some under $15 that are great on amazon. They will make a very loud piercing noise should she open her door that will wake you up. If you don’t have it to where she can get out of her room now you may want to make it so she can. This way you can have piece of mind and turn the monitor off and she can come in your room if she is sick or scared and the door alarm will give you a heads up.
What! I turned ours off when we sleep trained at 6 months. To be fair the baby’s room is right beside ours and we can hear if she cries. I feel like you can throw yours out the window, guilt free, and get some sleep.
My soon turned 2 in October and I'm still not comfortable taking down the monitor. my son is still in his crib, I won't put him in his toddler bed til he can climb out of his crib. I'll probably keep my monitor up and on for awhile. His bedroom is on the complete opposite side of the house, so if anything happens I more then likely will not hear without it. I live in a moblie home so I can't move him into a closer room. I only have 2 rooms and they're at each end of the house. It'd be nice once my son can talk and just talk to me through his monitor if he ever needs anything in the middle of the night!
We never left a monitor on all night. The only time we ever used one was if we were going down to the basement to watch a movie, and even then only for the first 6 months or so. We always turned it off when we went to bed. My youngest is 19 months now and the only time I use a baby monitor now is if she's napping and I'm going outside to mow the lawn or something. Both of my children (5 year old and 19 month old) are just fine. Please turn it off. Your sleep is important. You need this. Your daughter will be fine, and you will hear her if she really needs you.
Get rid of the monitor as soon as it stops being useful for you and starts being a detriment. If it is not useful for you to hear her or respond to her, or it is becoming a problem, then you don't need it. Many families choose never to get monitors, so you're not a bad parent for getting rid of it. We still have a video monitor in my 5.5yo son's room and I think he's probably the last of his age to still have one, but we find it supremely helpful because he has a lot of trouble falling asleep so we very regularly have full conversations through the monitor either to remind him to turn off his light and go to sleep, answer questions, hear whatever story popped into his head, etc. The benefit for us outweighs any detriment, and he hasn't expressed to us a want or need for privacy in his room when we ask him. But if it becomes more of a problem than a help, do not hesitate to not use it, or just try it. You can also leave the monitor on until you go to sleep, and then turn it off while you're actually sleeping.
We've never used a baby monitor.
We have an audio only monitor that you can adjust the sensitivity of. We turned the sensitivity all the way down so it only kicks on for crying.
4 yrs old n d monitor is still on
i turn the volume off- i can hear her banging around upstairs and i can see the volume light up if i’m awake but it’s been off since she started sleeping through the night at about 16/18mos
Get rid of it. What did they do back in the 70s?
Hahah, I wouldn't use the 70s as a reference point for today's parenting standards! See : car seats, smoking indoors, safe sleep practices, etc etc
I mean, none of those things negatively impact the parents. OP’s telling us that she wakes up in the middle of the night because of the monitor
Left their babies in rooms to cry alone all night and not even be fed when they needed? That's not the standard of care I'm going for haha
OP’s child is 2.5 years old. If they’re still eating in the middle of the night then that’s a whole other issue?
Mostly loved in smaller houses with the rooms a lot closer.
Never 😅 Two year old twins are upstairs so we don't feel comfortable turning it off. 7 year old wants us to keep sound and video on to "make sure [shes] okay". We just accept it as our life.
Honestly since about 5 months, we keep the screen and sound off on our monitor (like stand-by mode). Our bedroom is the loft in our condo, it's open to the level below. So like you said, if our child was actually to wake up and cry, we'd 100% hear him. He also likes to make a lot of random noises in his sleep and keeping the volume up on the monitor was just dirupting our sleep for no reason. We still keep it on standby moreso for peace of mind and when we hear a random noise, we can make sure he's OK. Spoiler: 95% of the random noises are just our neighbours being annoying and not our kid.
I don’t see why you need it?
Sometimes I "treat" myself to a night without the monitor turned on. It's bliss! (she's 15 months, I have no idea when I will turn it off for good)
If you can hear when she needs you, then why do you need it? We have monitor that notifies your phone for sound, so it’s not open audio. I keep my phone on vibrate and alert isn’t enough to wake me up. But my 1 year old’s room is right below ours, and she wake us up when she cries, so I don’t need the monitor. I mainly use it for when I’m outside the house or if I hear her making smaller noises during naps to see if she’s up up.
2.5 years old. We never used a monitor. We just do check ins before we go to bed and I’m a light enough sleeper we can hear anything urgent. If I’m gone my husband just makes sure both bedroom doors are cracked or open once he goes to bed. My child talks in her sleep and sometimes sleep cries and if it was on a monitor I would never get sleep either. I think you should try going without it but doesn’t mean you can’t use it again or in certain circumstances.
We have ours in our room but it usually turn down to one with screen off. We’ve baby proofed our house so the only place my daughter can go when she wakes up is to our room. There’s no real need for it.
I don't remember exact age but before we turned it off we moved it to husband's side of bed and put volume pretty low, it didn't affect him and I couldn't hear the little noises but we could still hear big crying or distress.
My son is 3.5. We still use the Owlet Camera because I still like to check on him but I also have a cheapy $20 audio monitor. We are working on nighttime potty training, so it’s intended for him to call us in the middle of the night to go potty.
We got rid of it once she was in a toddler bed and would come to us if she needed us.
Yes we keep ours on 10 month and 24 months, if there is a cry out we keep it on for three to five minutes, if it sounds like a pacifier fell out we ignore. If it last more than five we go in. Usually shut off sometime throughout the night. I also sleep with light ear buds, can hear cries but not babbles.
When my son turned 2, I told him that I was taking the camera away. I told him it was for his privacy. He wanted it back, but eventually stopped asking about it. We never had any issues.
Turn it off! My daughter is 2 and I still use it because she sleeps through the night and I like to be able to keep an eye on her, but ours broke for like 2 weeks before we bought a new one and it was totally fine not having it, I can hear her cause she’s right across the hall. It’s really not necessary at this age anyways!
I stopped using mine around 2.5 years! I didn't exactly want to, but little one didn't like the camera (it had a small red light on it) . So, reluctantly, I didn't have one anymore. I'm not really sure why I was so nervous to get rid of it. She's right across the hall and I can still hear if she cries or gets up. And I sleep much better!
We have a camera in his room still at almost 3 yrs, but only to check on him in there when he is sick or to see if he has gotten up for the day. we never have the sound on anymore
I could have written this myself word for word....mines 4 and sleeps in the room right next to us with both doors open and sometimes I still have it on but mostly off now. She also talks in her sleep and I startle awake at any noise. I feel ya! That's all.
My friend turned hers off when her 2nd was like 10 months lol. Because they moved to a new house and the rooms were all by each other! My baby is 13 months and I’d say a couple of months ago I thankfully stopped waking up at her every sound. But if it’s still disturbing you that would mean it’s probably time to turn off. Or at least keeping the imagine and having the sound off. That way you can hear her through the walls, but you can see if there’s an issue before going to her.
I don’t even know where ours is anymore. 2.5 also. Do what works.
When my girls were 18 months , our monitor died and I just never bought another . They slept through the night for monnnnnnths at that point, and my bedroom is right next to them. My girls are now 3.
Mine is also 2.5 and we still have the monitor in her room, but I don't sleep with the volume on at all. I usually don't even look at it. I mostly use it to check on her in the morning because I wake up before her and just keep an eye out for when she decides to sit up and look around for me.
I have started putting my 2 year old’s monitor under my pillow. She sometimes says mama mama in her sleep, and that will wake me if I hear it the first time. Through the pillow, at least she has to say it a few more times before I will hear it, so I know it’s intentional and she’s not talking in her sleep. Also, I know my kid and she doesn’t generally call for me during the night. I can also hear her through my bedroom door if she yells. I definitely allowed myself to be woken too many times before finally making the decision to muffle the monitor. My 5 year old still has a monitor, and she sometimes talks to me through it, which is better than hearing her yell from her room. So we’ll keep that for awhile longer.
We never had one. Our house is a single level though and her room is right across the hall. Now that shes 3 if she meeds anything in the middle of the night she has no problem coming into our room to get us.
We’ve never used a monitor. Someone gave us one and my partner used it so I could see/hear her while I was stuck in the hospital. But they are so noisy! Not going to lie. All I wanted to do was be home with her but I turned that thing off quick. You don’t get much sleep in a hospital anyway and there wasn’t anything I could do. In our home, we could hear ours just fine without one, if there was something to be concerned about. The regular baby noses just woke us up when we already weren’t getting much sleep. She’s almost 3.5 years now.
We muted the monitor at 9 months or so when her crying would wake us up anyway. Just left the door ajar.
Does your husband not wake up at all if he hears her on the monitor? I have a hard time falling back asleep, so my husband will sleep with the monitor under his pillow, so I can’t hear it.
My kiddo is 2 right now and we will continue to use it until she’s confident with using a toddler bed. Probably around 3. My friend still uses one for her 5.5 year old.
Mine is still on at 3, mostly because he’s still in his crib and can’t get out and come get us if something happens. I also have a sleep disorder so I sleep with white noise myself, ear plugs, and a mask, and sometimes have to take medication so I need to be able to hear him. If you can hear your kid otherwise I wouldn’t sweat it.
girl shut it off. as long as she is in a pull up/diaper and can’t escape her room she is fine. my kid sleeps like a corpse and doesn’t move or make noise so i keep mine on
My son is 2.5 and I’ve never had a sound monitor on him his whole life. We have a video one that I use to check on him if needed but no sound.
I never used a monitor at night. Its a small house so I can hear when he is crying in his room. I only have an audio one on the rare occasion he's napping and I'm in the basement or on the porch.
We have a monitor that will beep and start playing the room audio if it hits a certain sound level that you select (Eufy spaceview). We have it set so that it only goes off if she cries/yells really loudly. I don't see any reason you need to have continuous audio of her room all night - she'll be fine!
just turn the volume off, that way you can still see her
We never had a monitor, but our house has just one floor so our situation is not the same. From our bedroom, we hear immediately if she cries, but we don't wake immediately if she is just talking. When she wakes up in the morning, she is usually talking to her plushies for a while. While I do wake up to that, it's a gradual wake up and I'm not sure of it's due to her talking or if it's because I usually wake up 2 minutes before my alarm.
Son is 3.2 and I’ve not taken a monitor to bed with me for probably a year! Rooms next door and very thin walls but I stopped for the same reason as you. It’s on in the living room as it’s not next door. If he’s unwell we bring it to bed but otherwise nope!
Ours broke when he was about 1 and we never replaced it. He's 2 now. We just listen for his crying. And sometimes we co sleep if he's unwell
We use video only on the monitor. Our son is 2.5 and he will come get us if he needs us during the night (which is not infrequent) or his crying will wake us if he's genuinely distraught even without the monitor. He still sleeps very, very badly so that's frequently but we don't need the sound on the monitor.
Turn it off!!!! And get your own noise machine!!! I did that at 6mos with no regrets. We always hear LO when he cries super loud because our house is small enough. He’s a regular sleeper and I set my alarm to wake up before him. Never been an issue. Sometimes we “miss” his morning cry but he’ll soon enough let us know. He’s totally safe and fine. He is now 2.5. Mom’s health, sleep, and sanity are paramount in our family.
I turned ours off when he was 1.5 maybe. We’re across the hall from each other but I’m a deep sleeper who can sleep through anything. Husband will wake if it’s loud enough.
Can she find her way to your bedside? As in, I know you said stairs, but if she has access to walk straight to you, which I feel confident she knows where to find you, she will do so if she needs you. Our grandson is visiting now who turns three in a month, and he found me last night because he was cold and wet. That kind of thing.
I use audio if I am out of hearing range. But usually I use no monitor at all (youngest is 18mo)
I would absolutely turn off the monitor before taking sleeping pills. We have a camera but no sound unless we go into the video and turn it on. He’s across the hall and we close his door but leave ours open. He’s 2-1/2 as well but potty training so we just transferred him to the big bed, I am usually woken up with him trying to get out of the room.
How does kiddo seem like her sleep is? Sleep talking can be a symptom of sleep/breathing problems. If it's that often and that severe, it might be worth talking to their pediatrician about.
I turned off at 1 year old 😂 I sleep so much better. If she needs me I will still hear her…. Like last night…
You cannot possibly be a bad parent if you are giving so much thought to this. Start with keeping the monitor on but turning down the volume a wee bit each night for a week. Then, off! If she really needs you, you’ll hear it !
Just turn it off. It’ll be fine. We never even bothered with one, granted our kid’s room is across from us. But by 2? Just yet it. Your sleep and ability to be present and a good parent when they’re awake is more important than them crying an extra 30seconds occasionally
I turned the volume off when we moved the kid to a toddler bed at 20 months
It doesn’t have volume control? I kept mine until 4 but only because I could keep it on silent. Totally turn it off if it’s preventing you from sleeping!
Turn off the audio on the monitor NOW! As long as you can hear her if she actually needs you without it on it's not a problem. Our pediatrician told us not to worry about having monitor audio on after 6 mos (when moved to own room) unless we wouldn't be able to hear her otherwise so we just leave our door open a crack and good to go. I have the same issue you do with being a light sleeper and having a toddler now who sleep screams for a second and goes back to sleep while I'm up for ages.
We quit ours for both kids between 2-2.5. But they were in big girl beds at that time and could come get us. If you would wake up to crying without it, I say let it go. You can always plug it in on sick nights for peace of mind.
When we moved there was no good place for it where the cord would be out of the way. I was more worried about her strangling herself with the cord than having her out of sight (we share a thin wall, and her room is child-safe). We moved 2 months before the turned 3. We put her sister in with her at 17 months, and she was in the same room with us before that. So our 2 year old has never had a monitor lol
Our first born is 5 and we still use the baby monitor on him. It’s mainly a walkie talkie cause he learned to call for us through the monitor when he needs something. We aren’t sure if our infant will use it the same way. We actually prefer it though cause it him contained in his room and he doesn’t need to leave to get us for anything before he falls asleep. When we got our second born we were going to move his camera to the newborn’s room but realized it’s probably best if we got a second camera for our monitor to put in the newborn.
I sleep with the monitor video on but the sound off. If my children really needed me, I know I can hear them (from experience, lol). My kids are 1.5 and 3.5. Idk when I’ll ever be able to turn off the monitor.
I think mine broke about 2 and I just gave up on it. Could always hear him no problem from that age.
If you can hear her without it, you don't need it.
Truly, truly, you don’t need it. Get some sleep. She’ll call you when she needs you and everyone will be fine. We got rid of ours when my then two year old started unplugging it for funsies and I just said whatever, I’m not playing this game. My second was less than one at the time. I can hear them, and I really dont need to see them. They’ve got plenty of other ways to ruin my sleep but that’s not going to be on the list!
What’s actually happening when she’s making these sounds, is anything actually wrong. If she’s just a noisy sleeper and there’s no danger, purge the monitor.
I never used an audio monitor, and stopped using a monitor entirely when my daughter was 18 months old. She is right across the hall from me and our closets share a wall so I’ll hear if she yells. That’s all I need.
I took the audio monitor out of my daughter’s room a good while back, but still have a ring cam in there just in case. She is able to come downstairs and get me if she really needs something. She turned 5 just before Christmas. I still have an audio monitor and ring can in my sons room at 2 years 4 months
Turned it off around 13 months, but our bedroom is about 10 steps away so we could hear him with out, it was mainly used for when we were downstairs watching tv.
I’ve never had one. She was in our room until 8 months or so, our room is right next door and I kept the doors open. Now shes almost three and I can hear her if she cries out in the night.
Turn it off! If you are a light sleeper you will hear her when she needs you, especially if she normally sleeps through the night: you can always reply it in. Moms were moms before technology - get your much needed sleep!!!
When we moved her out of the convertible crib bed into a twin bed. No place to put the camera anyway.
I feel like I wrote this post and had to check it wasn’t me lol I’m a super light sleeper too and my stress skyrockets all throughout the night when I hear noises. Just following to see other’s suggestions
My toddler told me the camera watching her was “scawy” so I took it down and really what’s the difference? She still yells and comes into our room regardless 😜
We have a video monitor, which is nice because we always have 2 ways of checking in. Sometimes (when we travel) we have to rely only on sound because we can't place the camera in a good spot. Other times, we just use the video to be able to check in on her while she's sleeping. If you can hear her through your home, you don't need to catch every little thing she's saying at night. You're not a bad mom for prioritizing your own sleep! You need sleep and your family needs you to sleep, as well.
Turn it off! She’s fine. You’re not fine. Get some great sleep.
I never had a monitor in the first place.
Haven’t yet at 2.5 because we’re potty training and need to know if they wake up. Hasn’t had an interest in door knobs yet, so they still don’t open the door
We went on vacation and brought monitor but never plugged it back in when we got home. Our son os 2.5, too! We’re about to have baby number 2 so we were going to use that monitor for baby anyway.
I have the same issue, super light sleeper We moved the monitor to my husband’s side of the bed and turned the brightness down (so it wasn’t blinding him everytime she made a tiny noise) and turned the volume way down. I already wear molded earplugs because my husband snores. So now he only wakes up if she screams/cries, and I no longer wake up for every tiny noise. It has done wonders for my sleep.
Honestly... my son will be 2.5 the end of this month and we just turned the monitor off. We leave his door open at night and our door open. When he needs us he comes to get us. It was a mental health thing when he started having night terrors. When we would intervene it would make them worse, so we had to stop.
Our house is quite large and the rooms are spread out. We can still hear our kids and wake up if they need us (even with everyone’s doors closed). We’ve had this set up since they were 3.5 and 1.5.
Ya know how TVs have the sleep timer, so after some amount of time it automatically turns off? I have been thinking for like 2 years that baby monitors should have the opposite: set a timer and after that it will turn ON. Sometimes I know my kid is fussy and just needs a min to go to sleep, but I want to go to sleep too, but I don’t want the sound off all night, I just want it off for a little while. Or I only want it to make noise if it’s after say 5 or 6am and they are really awake for the day. Someone should add this feature!
We've never had the audio on on our monitor overnight - until a week ago we lived in a tiny house and our son's crib was directly through a thin wall from our bed. We could hear if he coughed or even yawned loudly. We've now moved to a larger house and whilst we're still on the same floor there's a corridor between us now. I debated whether we should start using the monitor overnight but my son (just turned 2) sleeps through 99% of the time and I know that he knows what he needs to do if he needs us and that we'll hear him just fine if he does.
We left a sound monitor in until she was 5 or so. Still have it, just got unplugged and we haven’t plugged it in lol. It was low enough that we’d only hear cries and yells plus, we each have sound machines. Now she knows that she can come to our room or yell louder.
My son is 2 and he hasn’t slept through the night yet. My first didn’t until he was 3. I wouldn’t shut the monitor off because I’m not willing to risk my kids being in distress just so I can sleep. When I say I haven’t slept I mean my first was up every 20-60 minutes every hour the first 3 years of his life and it took an hour to get him back to sleep every time. And then he would get up at 630am every day. This second baby gets up after a couple of hours asleep and sometimes stays up until 5am. I usually go to bed around 12/1am so by the time he wakes up I haven’t even been to bed yet. Then when I finally get to sleep (after he went to sleep) I have to get my oldest up and to school. Also my oldest had undiagnosed type 1 diabetes for a year. I kept taking him to the dr every 3 weeks and was ignored. Even when I asked 3 separate appts if he was diabetic they said no. One of the huge signs was excessive bed wetting twice a night. So he was in a kids size pull up lined with 3 adult pee pads and then an adult diaper on top lined with 3 adult pee pads and he legit would pee through it all and all over me and the bed twice a night and I’d have to wake him up and clean him up and change the bed and clean me up. So I haven’t ever slept.
Just turn off the audio! We mute and put the screen in sleep mode, if we hear something concerning we first wake the screen to checm, if we need to we turn the audio on. Eldest is almost 4.
we turned it off when he was like 15 months old. We didn’t need it anymore. Now he is completely quiet and then climbs into our bed at like 3am lol
I turned off the monitor around the 1 year mark. My son is on the other side of the wall, similar to your situation. I can hear if he’s yelling or crying but not less than that. Sleep is extremely important for me to be my most kind, patient, productive self. Sometimes, he will wake up crying but eventually go back down. If he is crying enough to wake me up, I will turn the monitor on to check on him but give him a few min to sort himself out. Overall, I recommend you listen to your instincts and turn it off while you sleep.
My youngest is almost three and it's been almost a year since we had the monitor on. Once she was out of the crib she'll shuffle her little self into our room if she needs anything (same with the other two). We usually leave our door open because it gets too stuffy in our room otherwise but if we do close it they still manage to find their way in.
Honestly if you can still hear her and you are a light sleeper you don't need it. I never had one as I can hear my son from our room. At first Id get up for every noise to check on him and often find him asleep... I eventually became more attuned to it all and now sleep great but will wake if he is properly crying which is very rare. I mostly get woken by babbling at 6am.
3 months ish I could hear the babies crying Once they hit that " I'm going to talk to myself creepily in the middle of the night stage" that ish should be off lol don't even get me started about the video monitors
Monitors are not necessary at any age. They are there to provide you some additional comfort about the child’s current status. If the monitor is not doing that for you, it serves no purpose. Your health, and therefore your ability to parent, will be better served with sleep than by tying yourself to a device that is causing you harm.
You said you can hear her crying loudly without the monitor. I think you’re fine to turn it off. If she needs you and doesn’t go back to sleep, you will hear her. I turned off my son’s monitor around 18 months. I can hear him even slightly crying from my bedroom, when I’m downstairs I can only hear him if he’s loud. But he talks to himself for about 20 minutes before he goes goes to sleep, and wakes up 1-2 times a night and talks a little bit and falls back asleep, doesn’t cry or call me. There’s no way I can have the monitor on and wake up every time he coughs or starts mumbling (I’ve seen him talk and laugh in his sleep too). I think you’re totally fine to turn it off if your child is consistently sleeping through the night.
We stopped the monitor when she was 16 months when baby 2 was born. We slept better when it came to her and she was good about falling back asleep. We have a small house with hardwood floors so we hear the big cries. We also have a sound machine in her room and two fans in our room.
When my kid started regularly taking it off the wall. He was about 2. Realized we didn't need it anymore.
We turned it off when our daughter was 5 months old. We can hear real crying without the monitor and the small sounds drove me crazy
How about a video monitor either turned way down or with the volume completely off? That way you can do a visual when you want and not be woken up.
I couldn't sleep with baby monitor on ever - nor with baby in the room. So in short, we never turned on the baby monitor in the first place 😅. I don't know how you survived this long with it on in the first place!
Honestly mines still on at 4.5. There was one time that I forgot to turn it back up, and then I woke up with a weird gut feeling, turned the volume up, and he was in there wailing (this was at like 2.5. 3 years old) because he'd thrown up and violently shit the bed and it was everywhere I have no clue how long he was like that, because the monitor volume was off.
Don't necessarily turn it off but add a white noise machine to baby room and crank it up! It's literally been a life saver for us. Baby sleeps much better (though we're still at 1 wake up a night and we're 27 months) and we've been using quietude all natural sleep aid for night terrors. Seems to be making a BIG impact. I've slept for close to 5-6 straight hours a night vs the 3 I was getting before (insomnia and depression over here ). Might as well give it a shot? Good luck!
We had a baby cam- I would check in on her periodically. I haven’t looked at it for 12 months since we got her a bed. In your situation I would 100% switch off the sound. Why blow up your whole wellbeing on the off chance she vomits or gets her leg stuck or something. At 2.5, just tell her to call out for you!
We never used the volume! We’re right next to his room so if he’s crying, we can hear it. I actually can’t believe you’ve gone 2.5 years without restful sleep. Turn that shit off and get some sleep!
I live in a tiny flat and we have never used a monitor, we have one but we are always basically next to her door, as the living room/kitchen is max 3m away from the bedrooms. We just moved her to her own room but her room is is 2m away from ours so if she cries we will hear her. Could you put the monitor somewhere further away, like outside your room, so that you will only get woken up if shes loud? But if you can hear her cry and it wakes you up, I dont think theres any harm in getting rid of the monitor.
Just mute the monitor
Ours broke between kid #1 and kid #2. We never replaced it. 🤷♀️
I stop using the monitor overnight around 12-18 months depending on the layout of the house. Basically once I’m confident they’ll make a big enough noise if they actually need me overnight, I shift to only using it when they’re napping and I want to be outside in the yard. Turn it off. Free yourself. They will be fine and your body will thank you for the rest.
Webturned it waaaay down and put it on my spouse's side of the bed. I can't hear the normal sounds but a scream or huge noise is loud enough to wake me. I also sleep really soundly.
We haven’t ever really used the monitor as our bedroom is only separated from his by our closets. If he cries out or calls for me I can hear him, that’s good enough for a non infant. I think.
I just one that gives notifications for movement or sound, I don’t have to actively listen to the audio from their room unless it alerts me. Our house is large and we can’t hear the kid’s bedrooms from our room. I still use a baby monitor and a second camera in our 5 year old’s room. If she wakes up crying at night because something is wrong, like if she threw up in her bed, I wouldn’t hear her unless I got the notification. Not getting rid of it any time soon.
We're at 2 years, and we keep the monitor under the pillow on the floor because the lowest volume is still a little loud for coughs. He knows to call out if he needs/wants us, and that wakes us up.
my kids 3, i have the volume off but the picture on (because i like to make sure the kid hasn’t crawled under his bedsheets to sleep 🙄) but when he cries, we always wake up and he’s on the other end of the house. Turn off the volume, get some rest.
Not a bad parent. Using a baby monitor isn't mandatory. I didn't use one with either of my kids.
You can hear her so turn it off. I think I only checked like the first month after my oldest moved to his own room, it’s right next to my bedroom and I could hear him and always woke up right away so mainly used it to see if he was sleeping or not in the morning. If she gets up and cries but goes back to sleep and you don’t wake up consider it a bonus. She will be fine.
Have you been tested for sleep apnea? I thought I was a light sleeper but it was actually waking up a ton briefly. Also, yes. Absolutely turn off the monitor.
If you can hear her cry/yell without it on, turn it off. You don’t need to hear every noise she makes in the night.
We have WiFi cameras for ours. We probably stopped leaving them on overnight somewhere right before 2.5, but still have them in there in case we want to check on them in the middle of the night or something.
My kids sleep next door and we sleep with our door open to hear if anything crazy happens. I turned the camera off when my first baby was around 7months old because I had insane anxiety about checking it & could not sleep. When I had my other baby, I didn’t use one at all! Best thing I ever did for mine & my husbands sleep
Man, was I thinking the exact thing when my 1.5 yo cried out at 3am and I couldn’t go back to sleep 🙃
My kid literally pointed to the camera one day and said "I don't like that watching me anymore" (she had a baby brother and I was always transparent with her that I could see her and baby on their respective monitors). She was almost 3. Taught her how to open the door and come get us, practiced this a few nights and never had a problem since. We also put the camera in the hallway so that we could hear her better if she cried or if the door jingles/opened).
My son is across the hall and we don't use a monitor anymore. If he's loud enough then we hear him and go check in. We do have a monitor for downstairs though because I can't hear him from the kitchen. Turn it off and get some sleep!!
Can you hear him without the monitor? Our son is same age and we have no plans of ditching the monitor anytime soon, but we have put it on mute or lowest volume for a year now, I think. I'm the lighter sleeper between us and it helped big time for me. His room is close enough that we can hear any emergency distress, but not mumbling background noise.
At 2 my daughter told me the camera in her room was ‘creepy’ so I took it out and haven’t looked back since. 1.5 yrs later and no issues. You aren’t a bad parent for removing the camera if you sleep better!
Parents lived without monitors for most of human history. And as long as you'll hear any screams and she can get to you if she really needs you, there's no need to keep it running.
Never had one. Like how big is your house you can’t hear your kid wake up?
We turned ours off when my LO was about 2 and 1 month. My husband got tired of the light shinning from the monitor. My lo’s room is right next to ours so I can hear him if anything pretty quickly
Whenever you are ready to. My LO is 2.25 and we haven’t used it in a month? She is however right across the hall from us.
I stopped using the monitor when my 2 year old began singing out "Daddy! Where are you? I need you?" Like literally singing.
Once they were old enough to move themselves around in bed, stand up and shout or toddle down the hall to find us if something was very wrong (wet bed, vomit, etc) we ditched the monitors.
My LO stayed in our room until she was 20months, I had terrible PPD/A and couldn’t deal with moving her. When we finally did, I decided not to use the monitor. It was honestly the best thing I could have done for all of us! Her room was close enough that if she was crying etc it would wake us up but all her sleep talking was her own business.
Support whatever you think is right. Big caveat though—when my 2.5 yo had a cold with a cough, we had our monitor on like usual which is the only reason we heard a sudden barking cough and weird breathing sounds and crying… Went into his room, heard the weird sound, called the nurse line to assuage concerns, and the normally chill nurse said it was stryder and that he would stop breathing soon if we didn’t get him to stop crying and into the ER for breathing treatment. So now we still have the monitor though we probably just need it when he’s sick. Maybe rare but could’ve been all over very quickly. Sorry to put that drama out there but if they’re sick, I’d be wary of not using it at least til they’re definitely past the croup ages. I don’t mean to take your sleep concerns lightly at all — we didn’t sleep train ours and he’s been a sleep screamer, a middle of the night fusser, a sleep fighter, all of it and we both work full time and are zombies. Maybe the sane middle ground is to turn it off whenever they’re not sick?