Why I turned off the baby monitor...

Since August of 2014 I have had the buzz of a baby monitor next to my ear on my night stand. I needed it for comfort, to spy on my first born, able to care for every and any need she may have during the dark hours of the night. Soon we added a sound machine to her room...adding either crashing waves, whales "talking" or the sound of a "delightful" tropical rain. Needless to say it took me a while to get use to each noise. My sleep was already lacking due to her demanding nighttime feeding schedule especially in those early months. 

About 11 months after she was born we moved her downstairs so that we could redecorate her nursery to accommodate baby #2. OF COURSE I HAD to have the baby monitor on now that she was ALLLLLLL the way downstairs...the restless nights continued not because she was still waking during the night but rather because the sounds coming from the machine that was helping her fall asleep was waking me during the night. But I still insisted that the baby monitor stay on....just in case.

When baby boy arrived in December 2016 we purchased a second camera for our baby monitor. Now I could spy on BOTH of them as the screen rotated to allow the picture and sound of each room to come through the unit. The sound machine in my daughter's room has been replaced by the babbling filter of a fish tank and my son's room is graced with the sounds of a VERY loud air conditioning unit (since it only gets to be about a million degrees on the top floor during our recent summer heat spell). In addition, the demanding nighttime feeding are back and so is the lack of sleep. Seriously....two nights ago my "sweet" little 6-month old was practically up from 12:45am-5:30am!

So I decided... ENOUGH IS A ENOUGH!

Do I really need to hear every restless sound of each child? Those moments where they toss and turn in their sleep which wake me up. Or the times when my daughter randomly wakes up in the middle of the night and starts signing then falls back asleep? And my baby boy? Well, come on...let's face it. His nursery is seriously not EVEN 50 feet away from our bed! If he cries loud enough I know I will hear him.

So from their pediatricians prompting and for my own sanity, I have decided to turn off the baby monitor....and feel NO guilt. It has actually allowed me to get a bit more sleep and for my children (mainly my 6-month old) to soothe themselves back to sleep from those small little tosses and turned.

After two years of a constant buzz in my ear (not to the mention their sweet little "buzzes" all day, everyday), I have silence when I go to sleep. And that is why I turned off the baby monitor....for sanity. sleep. peace. Pure bliss my friends, pure bliss!