Baby Registry Regret

Twenty-three months in, and I think it's safe to say that I'm no longer a "new" mom. I have had plenty of time to use and abuse (and then pack away! ::sniff sniff::) a crap-load of baby and toddler stuff.

When I was pregnant and we were creating our registry, I was so indecisive about so many things. There is just so.much.stuff out there, and 145 options for each thing. I did loads of research, asked a ton of experienced parents, referenced Baby Bargains repeatedly, and then made selections... and then changed my mind. A lot. Even after we received things at our baby showers, we took a bunch of items back to exchange them for something else that I had discovered was cheaper/safer/better/whatever.

{Me, registering for baby gear back in the day. Note the Baby Bargains book tucked under my arm}

The thing that kills me now is how much things have changed already... in two years. There are things that are baby necessities now were considered unnecessary or a luxury back then. (I use the terms necessity and luxury loosely, by the way. I recognize that most things are actually luxuries, and that babies actually need very little. But you know what I mean.)

Thankfully, because I did so much hemming and hawing over every decision, I pretty much loved everything that we had, and have no problems using it all again for another baby someday. But as Nora grew and time went on, I came to realize: I have one baby registry regret.

A video monitor.We didn't register for a video monitor. Instead, we chose a basic audio monitor, but a good one at that--I think the thing was like $65 at the time, although it is only $45 now. Video monitors were $200+ and I just felt like, Why do we need to see the baby? At the time, we lived in such a small place that I wondered if we really even needed a monitor at all.

Nora was born and it took us a while to even need to use the monitor--but we did set it up fairly early in her life, when she started going to bed before us, even when she was still in our room with us. It was helpful then, and was even more so when we moved her to her own crib. And although there were times that I wanted to see her--I was able to pretty easily sneak into her room (even when she was awake) and get a peek without her seeing me.

That all changed once she started sitting and standing up in her crib. And that's when I started feeling like maybe we had made a mistake with this whole monitor thing. I resolved that we would probably be splurging on one for Baby #2 someday.

Fast-forward a year or so, and this past spring, Nora had a bout with a stomach flu. And by bout, I mean a bout x 3. She was sick, then she was better for a few days, then she got sick again, better, sick... you get it. It sucked.

The worst part about it was that we didn't know. Nora would throw up in her bed at night and would be completely quiet about it. The first night it happened, I happened to go in there to check on her before bed and found her sitting up, shivering from being wet from being covered in her own vomit. She was awake but totally out of it. If we had a video monitor, we decided, we would've been able to see her up, and possibly see the vomit-covered mattress. I started researching, but we still didn't have plans to get a video monitor... yet.

Then it happened again, but this time, we didn't discover the mess until the morning--after she had fallen back asleep in it. My poor baby. And when it happened a THIRD time, we decided we were fed up. I ran out to Buy Buy Baby that morning and brought home a video monitor.

{This is our actual monitor. That's Nora, passed out at this very moment}

And I swear, this thing is the BEST.PURCHASE.EVER. I am still so pissed at myself that I didn't register for one the first time. They were out there, people had them, but I didn't know anyone who had one or insisted that it was a "must-have." Now? Well, now I think that most people know they are must-haves, no? Take it from me, expectant mamas: YOU WANT ONE. You may not know yet that you do, but YOU DO. They're expensive, but you will use it every day, and for a long time.

Now that we realize the error of our ways, we have plans to keep a video monitor on Nora for probably a couple more years so we can see what she's doing in her room once she's in a big girl bed and can move about the room freely when we're not in there. So when we have another baby someday, we'll purchase a second camera and be able to see both kids in each of their rooms. Brilliant.As for our choice of monitor? We love the Motorola we ended up with. We had a 20% off coupon for Buy Buy Baby so the total was right around $200 after the discount. And again, it was worth every single penny. There are cheaper models out there, but we liked a few things about this: First, the ability to move the camera remotely. We have Nora's camera mounted up on the wall (with a simple screw) in one of the corners of her room and when we control the camera, we can see every inch of the room. When she's older and can move around the room, this will be great. Secondly, it has a two-way talk feature--so not only can we hear her, but with the push of a button, we can talk to her and she'll hear us, too. It's not a feature we use very often right now, but again--I can see this really coming in handy with a 3- or 4-year-old, e.g. "Get back in bed!" :)

Otherwise, the clarity of the video is great in both the daytime and in the complete dark at night. Sound is great, too. We haven't had any problems. And unlike some of the other video monitors out there, the data is encrypted specifically for our receiver, so there's no chance of us picking up a neighbor's feed or vice versa. Obviously, being able to add another camera was a must for us, too.

Complaints? Well, I don't really have any. Two things that I've noticed/heard others say, though, is that 1) You can't turn the volume all of the way down. This doesn't bother me because I figure that if I'm going to turn the volume down, I might as well turn the monitor off completely. 2) The temperature gauge is inaccurate. This is an added "perk" and not a necessity to me, so I don't really care. We're used to it reading about 5-10 degrees warmer on the monitor than it actually is in the room, so we know to adjust accordingly.

So, all you parents and future parents out there: Get thee a video baby monitor. I promise you won't regret it.

And that is my nugget of wisdom for the day.

Do you have any baby registry regrets? Something you got that was worthless to you, or something you didn't bother with that you wished you had?