Advise on a Baby Monitor.

I have the Graco iMonitor that vibrates. I love it! Its a clear sound, great distances and L.-lasting battery. As much as I love it, I kind of wish I had gone with the Angel Care monitor. Its more expensive but the sensor for the baby breathing would have given me more peace of mind, especially when my son began rolling onto his tummy to sleep at 5 mos.

We have used our Summer Infant handheld B&W video monitor for 2 1/2+ years now and LOVE it. We used gift cards to purchase it, but I would have easily paid full price knowing now how great of a purchase it would be. We are military and ordered it from ToysRUs online and have traveled to/from Europe and the States TWICE and have never had a problem (I always had it in our carry on). I have even dropped the camera down a long flight of stairs and it is still going strong.

I am sure there are a lot more models to choose from now - but this one works great for us. I would also add that the B&W works great and I am not sure that color would be worth the extra cost. JMO :)

I have the Graco color video monitor. It works great so that I can see what my daughter is doing without having to run to her room every time she makes a noise. If she sees me then she wants to be picked up so it is better that I stay out of sight unless actually needed. The color picture only shows up in color during the daytime or with the lights on in her room, at night in the dark the picture you will see is black & white. My daughter doesn't nap in the crib so the color picture isn't used very much by us but it is a really good picture and a great "extra" to have. I would give this monitor 5 stars!

We have a video monitor and I love it! We have the Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" screen. The color aspect is pretty minimal but it sees fine in the dark and the sound is good. This has been a wonderful thing for me. When my now 14 month old daughter makes some noise, I can turn the video on and see whether she's actually up or just tossing and turning. I wholeheartedly recommend these!

If I had it to do over again, I would have registered for one of those. There have been plenty of times that I want to check on the baby, but opening the bedroom door would either wake her up, or give a quiet and awake baby a reason to cry.

I have the summer day and night video monitor and love it. We dont get any interference and the picture is good. The color during the day time is minimal, it still looks mostly gray scale but the night vision is great. It is a huge help to be able to peek in on the baby without possibly disturbing him if he is just making noise in his sleep!

We absolutely loved our video monitor. We have a Summer Infant, ~$100 at Target. It was especially helpful on those nights that baby woke every 20 mins just to say hi! I could make the decision from my bed whether or not he really needed me or if he was fine to just babble himself back to sleep! Even now (as my baby is now a toddler) I have peace of mind checking to see that he's still in his big boy bed and not roaming around.

I have the Quiet Sounds handheld video monitor and really like it. The only issue is it can get static but you just have to find the right spot. It probably took about a week to find the perfect spot on my nightstand for it. I have had this monitor for over a year now and other than the occasional static no problem. For me there also was no need to purchase an additional monitor for audio (some people need to do this with video monitors). Anyhow I really do love this and am SOOOOO happy I have it. I did not have this with my first child which was a mistake.

We have 2 Summer video moniters (around $100 each), one for each child. We have been very pleased with them and I highly recommend them.

We purchased one from Sharper Image when our youngest was born (he is now almost 5). It was great! We still have it and it still works! We only use it when his health issues are flaring. But they are great to see if you really need to get up in the middle of the night, or if your baby is just making noise in their sleep. We had just the audio one with my oldest and I was always getting up because he "talked" in his sleep! Choose wise and do research. Invest in a good one.

I don't have a video monitor, so I can't help you out there, but I do have a monitor that has given me reassurance that my son is safe in his crib, which resulted in me getting a better night's sleep.

I'm assuming your niece is looking into video monitors for the same reassurance...

The monitor I have is called "AngelCare" and it's made by BeBe Sounds. You can pick one up at Target.com with 2 hand sets for just $130.00.

This is a regular audio monitor that also has a movement sensor. The sensor pad is placed under the crib mattress. If baby doesn't move (and when I say "move" I really mean "breath" because the sensor is that sensitive) for 15 seconds, an alarm goes off. Nothing loud...just a steady tone that lets Mommy know that she needs to go check on baby.

When my son was about 2 weeks old he had to go into the hospital for a few days for periodic breathing (he'd stop breathing for about 5-7 seconds at a time, and he'd do it over and over again). The hospital sent us home with a heart monitor that had leads attached to a band that we had to keep straped around his chest. That blasted machine went off ALL THE TIME because he'd move and a lead would slip out of place...and this was a very LOUD alarm, so I'd end up shooting out of bed several times a night. I got so aggravated that I started searching online for any other options...that's when I found the AngelCare monitor and it was a saving grace!

I used this monitor for over two years with my son and it only sounded the alarm one time...when he learned to roll over and snuggled himself up against one of the corners and the sensor couldn't detect him. And we never had an issue with static interference like we did with our other monitor.

I have raved about this monitor to anyone that will listen! I highly recommend your niece checks it out. While video monitors are great for WATCHING baby, they still don't ensure that a sleeping baby is a breathing baby.

We have the Summer handheld and we love it!

I have video monitor-I believe the brand is summer and it works pretty well. The monitor does receive interference when someone is on our cordless phone but that's not really a problem. Usually the video reception is pretty good-for some reason there are some days when the video reception is not so great-the screen will jump or there will be this clicking noise but to me this is a small inconvenience. I really like being able to not only hear what my daughter is doing but to see what she is doing as well. We got the monitor as a baby shower gift but I believe it cost around $100.

I highly recommend a baby monitor. I rec'd a video baby monitor as a gift during my first pregnancy. At first, I thought it was overkill. It turned out to be one of the best gifts I received. As an infant, my daughter was slow to wake up. She'd grunt, moan and twitch off and on for a good 20 minutes before actually waking up. The video screen allowed us to see from our bed when she was actually awake. That saved us from getting up unnecessarily every time we heard a grunt or moan. We turned the audio all the way down because it was static-ky and she was just on the other side of a thin wall that we could hear through anyway.

Later as she was old enough to play on her own, I could put the camera in the living room and wash dishes next door in the kitchen while still keeping an eye on her through the monitor.

My son broke the receiver, so I can no longer use it. I was looking forward to keeping an eye on him and my daughter playing together. If it weren't such an extravagance, I'd buy one just for that purpose.

The Summer handheld monitor is great. I don't know if they all come with night vision, but this one does. I can't imagine not having a monitor. It is worth the investment. Whenever our daughter is in her crib (she is only 5 months so she is only in her room to sleep at this point) I have it on me. Last week I had it attached to my waist band while I was cleaning the bathroom and it fell in the toilet, it still works how it should. I would buy it all over again if I had to. We purchased it at Target. Good luck.

We have the Safety 1st HD Video monitor and it works great! It was pricey at about $250 but well work it for us. We like the fact that the camera is easy to move around, the night vision works great, it has an AC adapter or you can use rechargeable batteries. I highly recommend this one. My husband really did his research and used the website babygizmo.com to read reviews. We get no interference despite having WiFi and tons of electronic equipment. Hope this helps.