How did my parents not have a baby monitor???

I'll admit it. I'm addicted to my baby monitor. And I'm not ashamed to admit it!!!

For those that don't know my husband, he researches large purchases. I do not mean that he asks for opinions from a few friends. I mean he asks friends, family, co-workers, reads online product reviews...the whole process exhausts me, and I don't do any of the work. I tend to buy cheap, which usually results in things breaking, tearing, wearing out and down, or just generally not working. My husband wants the most bang for his buck, and he usually succeeds. He manages to find deals that I would have never thought possible.

I ramble on about that to say that not one item above $25 on our daughter's registry was not thoroughly researched by my husband. I, of course, chose items based on cuteness. I was having a girl...cuteness is a perk! So when my mom told me that she wanted to buy a video monitor, I quickly told her I'd check with the nerd, I mean...er, Michael. He read up and agreed that if my mom was willing to splurge, we could not possibly refuse it.

Since my daughter slept in our bedroom (in a bassinet) for the first 6 weeks, I did not realize how dependent I would come to be on the monitor. I had turned it on just a couple times to see what it looked like during the day versus at night (yup, it's like night vision!) But that first night we put her in her room....I could not sleep for clicking the video on and off all night! That's right, the video part is optional, so you can turn that part off and just have the audio. Well, for every grunt, wheeze and sneeze, I'd turn the video on. And then if more than a couple minutes passed with no sound, I'd turn it on again. My husband was snoring away beside me, so I did not even feel guilty about doing this.

It was almost a week later when Michael told me how he not only knew about my addiction, he had told half his department at work! He said he would almost be asleep when suddenly a blue light would shine out from my side of the bed. Click, click, click...he heard me every time!!!

Keep in mind, he could sleep through Abbie crying only a few feet away when she slept in our room, but me turning on the monitor - that he hears!!!

My mom tells me she and my dad did not have a monitor when I was a baby. My room was very close to theirs and I, like my daughter, slept better in my own crib than I did a bassinet. Yet it still blows my mind that monitors, even if only audio, were not always a staple for new parents. But a lot has changed in three and a half years - right? (I'll save that for another post, another day).

Well, rumor has it that Abbie took one 15-minute nap today, and that was it. It has not even been a full week, and my child will probably run off her Aunt Jennifer! She was pretty tired tonight, so she got laid down at 7:45 and was out by 7:49. And yes, I know that because I watched on the monitor!!!