Baby monitors

[Cumberland]

How long do you keep a monitor in your child's room these days? DD is going on 3 but I dont feel comfortable taking it out anytime soon. I just wonder, will she be 7 and i will still have it in there? Our current house is a split level with the master on the other side of the house from the kid's rooms, so I feel like i need it all the more.

I think it really all depends on the layout of your house and what you're comfortable with. I haven't used a baby monitor in AGES - probably not since Quinn was a newborn. But back then we were in a super-tiny house. My friend has an almost-3 year old (Nov.) and literally carries the monitor around the house w/her so she can hold it up to her ear (which I think is a bit much). In her house the master is on the 3rd floor, and the kid's room is on the 2nd, so I would totally do it at night time.

[Sheherezade]

I've always heard that the baby monitor should be installed at birth -well hidden - and removed when the kid goes to college. The teen years are interesting.

We also haven't had a monitor on since the baby phase. When we moved in to this place, I did opt to use the guest room as our room until the kids were a little older. The real master bedroom is on a lower floor. It's a little freaky to be out of earshot from the kids. DH would LOVE to be out of earshot late at night more these days. BUT......that's a different thread. :>

I still have one in ds's room and he's 2.5. His asthma comes on quite quickly and usually at night and I feel more comfortable with it there in case he can't get out of bed and come and tell me himself. I'll probably keep it there until he tells me he doesn't want it there anymore.

[DCJenn]

We never had a monitor because our room has always been right next to Nikolai's. (and the benefit of being married to a pediatrician is that ANY noise that Nikolai makes, Rick is up and out of the bed and checking on him) The new house will be different because the bedrooms will be across the hall from each other. Most alarming will be the fact that he has a bathroom in his room. I'm going to have to lock him out of it somehow. We don't need to be flushing the rubber ducks at 3am.

Jenn

We have one installed in the baby's room, but DH made me turn it off after a week. Our house is a fairly good size, but we really only live on 1 level...I am such a neurotic mama that every breath he took (or didn't in my mind) I would race into his room convinced that something terrible had happened (26 times a day apparently, but who's counting?) Anyway we realized quickly that between the 4 of us we heard Xander whenever he needed us!