When I was pregnant I did a lot of research into which monitor to chose. I knew this was going to be a "must" purchase as the house we moved into is quite old and the sound doesn't travel at all through the walls! The reviews I read at the time pointed to this as one of the best, so I added it to my "amazon wishlist", which my Mother-in-law kindly bought for us.

I have been using this for the past 8 months and have found that it has good and bad points.

~ Cost and Availability ~

It cost around £75 to buy of Amazon, however, you can buy these in most shops selling baby items i.e. Argos, ToysRus, Mothercare and normally retails at around £99.99 in store or £75 online.

~ Features ~

This is not only a simple sound monitor, however, it also has a room temperature, nightlight & movement sensor pad.

~ Sound monitor ~

The sound is quite clear through the monitor, however, I have found that I do get interference occasionally. There is an option to chose the channel if the transmission is not clear or is causing a problem.

There is an option to have the sound on constantly, or activated by a certain level of sound. I chose to have the sound on constantly, as I want to hear every little sound in my little girls room.

~ Room temperature ~

This is a great feature as you have no need to buy any additional room thermometer. It show the temperature on the parent handset, so you can see if you need to turn the heating down without entering your baby's room and disturbing them. There is also an option to set an alarm when the temperature gets above/below a certain level. It is essential to make sure baby's room doesn't get too warm as overheating has been linked with SIDS.

~ Nightlight ~

The monitor has a mellow blue light, which can be turned on/off by a switch on the side of the transmitter, not affecting the settings for the sound/movement monitor. This is only a dim light and I tend to leave it on all night.

~ Movement sensor ~

This is probably the main reason people buy this monitor instead of the cheaper "sound only". Being a parent can be the scariest time of your life, being a worrier I like the idea that this pad telling me that my baby is breathing, it is such a relief and sets my mind at ease. The movement sensor is a pad, which is placed under the mattress in the centre of the cot, and plugs into the transmitter. This is an optional extra and the sound monitor will work with or without the movement sensor.

The pad detects when your baby moves and is so sensitive it can recognise every breath. If the pad doesn't detect a movement for 20 seconds it sets off a single beep on both the parents handset and the transmitter. This noise in the baby's room is to wake up baby, as sometimes with baby central sleep apnea a little nudge may retrigger the breathing. After 40 seconds a constant alarm goes off on both units.

This does give you peace of mind, especially when I moved my baby from my bedroom into her nursery. However, this is also a little annoying. As when you pick up your baby, you trigger the alarm. So you have to turn off the transmitter unit, which makes the alarm go off on the parents unit. So when baby wakes up a 3am for a feed, you first have to remember to turn of parent unit, so as not to wake up DH, then going into nursery and turn of the transmitter, then pick up hungry screaming baby! When you are half asleep it is not the easiest thing to remember! If only there was a button/switch on the transmitter unit to say you are picking your baby up.

With the movement monitor you can have a "tick" every time you baby moves. I'm not sure whether anyone uses this option, as it is probably the most annoying sound in the world, and I can't imagine anyone can sleep with a constant beep next to them! This can be turned off and the parent unit just shows a pendulum swinging to reflect every movement.

There is also an option to adjust the sensitivity of the pad if you are getting too many false alarms.

~ The units ~

The transmitter nursery unit can be plugged into the mains or used with 4 AAA batteries. I normally use it plugged in, however, the option for batteries is good for power cuts or travelling, however, I cannot comment on battery life as I have not used it.

The parent unit comes with 4 rechargeable AAA batteries, that charges in the cradle. This lasts around 3 days of daytime naps & evening until I went to bed, however, now my little girl is in her own room I put it on charge over night & it now never runs down on batteries.

There is a mute option on the parent unit, to mute the noise for 2 minutes. I don't use this option as I cannot leave my girl to cry, however, if you are using the "cry it out" method of settling your baby this is useful.

If I am going somewhere I take the monitor to use just as a sound unit on the travel cot. It is quite light so relatively portable.

~ Range ~

The range on this unit is surprisingly good. In the manual it states that the range is 250m (open field) or 80-100m (indoors), this is plenty for any normal house/garden. I find that I can do a bit of gardening while my daughter is taking her nap, without the unit losing signal. If you lose signal it gives you are warning beep and vibrates. This doesn't mean you can go out to the pub down the road!

~ Warnings ~

As this is an electrical unit with wires, you must take extra care when placing the units in the baby's room to ensure that the wires is out of the reach of the baby to ensure there is no risk of strangulation.

Also, it does say that this is NOT a SIDS prevention device, and does not replace the requirement of checking on your baby.

The pad will recognise movement of a mobile, therefore the alarm will not sound if the mobile is moving.

~ Conclusion ~

This is a great unit and does exactly what you need it for. However, I wish it had some way of pausing the alarm on the nursery transmitter unit when you are picking you baby up for a few minutes.