With your baby on the way or already home you are experiencing the greatest joys of being a parent. As parents of 4 children, we are happy for you.

With the excitement comes that other part of life, Worry. The stress of so many baby product choices and which is best for our baby and of course new parents worrying.

The biggest benefit of a baby monitor is to help calm your worries. The advent of video and audio baby monitors makes taking care of your baby and keeping up with everything else much easier. Whether its nap time or bedtime, you know what is going on with out disturbing your sleeping baby. You can take a moment to yourself or take care of tasks around the house.

Using your baby monitor does not stop when your precious baby has grown into a child. As crawling, walking and playing independently become routine, your monitoring system is still very useful.

There are 3 main types of baby monitoring systems

Audio
This style of monitor lets you listen to your baby from another room. There is a microphone transmitter unit for the babies room and a portable receiver unit for the parent.

Audio and Movement
This includes an audio transmitter for sounds, a movement sensor pad you place under your baby, and a receiver unit. The sensor pad sends an alarm signal when there is no movement. While it may seem that your baby is perfectly still when sleeping, she really isnt. Movement sensors detect your babys slightest, even while sleeping. An alarm will sound alerting your to check your baby only after being still for a short time, typically 20 seconds. This is a good option if video monitoring is not your need.

Video and Audio
With these monitors you can hear your baby and see your baby in the light or in the dark. Small portable cameras that can be mounted include the video camera, microphone and infrared sensors. Picture quality will vary depending on the home wireless environment and quality or cost of picture monitor. Picture quality and definition will not be as good as television cable, digital cable or satellite service.

Video and Audio Baby monitors are the most popular and come with a wide variety of options. Black and White, Color, Wireless, Wired, Small Portable Screens, Hand Held, Small Counter Top TV style receivers, Flat screens.

With our experience here are the key options to consider.

Signal Range
Most baby monitors work great in home and apartments. If your home is large or want to take the parent receiver outside, choose a system that meets your needs. All systems work great when there is nothing but open air between transmitter, camera unit, and receiver, audio and video monitor. Closer is better. The more walls and distance you put between the units, clarity of reception diminishes. Most systems operate very well in the 100 to 300 foot range in the average home setting.

Signal Frequency
This is an important topic to evaluate so that the system will work in your home environment so you may hear and see your baby. The most common causes of interference are microwaves ovens, cordless phones and wireless Internet routers. In most cases adjusting placement of the various wireless systems in your home so as to not cross paths on a direct line will eliminate or minimize interference. Most wireless Baby Monitor systems come with multiple channels to help reduce interference. A system advertised as 900 MHz with two channels will have 2 frequencies, say 909 MHz and 921 MHz. This way you can evaluate each wireless system and set them on different frequencies. In addition, most cordless phones and wireless routers have channel options.

At our place of business, we have two offices. One office computer is LAN line hardwired and the other office computer is 2.4 GHz wireless Internet. We have two cordless phones, one 900 MHZ, one 2.4 GHz. Plus a microwave and our cell phones. We are able to operate each wireless Baby Monitor we sell in this wireless environment by making any needed positioning or channel adjustments.

Congratulations on your new baby!