Angelcare Movement and Sound Monitor

I delegated all control to Mr. C to do with the baby monitor, when I say all control I mean he could give ideas and I could tell him why they weren't for us! Ooops. However I did mention to one of our good friends that I was looking into the Angelcare Movement and Sound Monitor. Mr.C was very relieved when our friend generously purchased this monitor for my Baby Shower present, I have been so impressed with this monitor so I know I made the right choice and wanted to let you know all about it if you are thinking of buying one. 

I know a lot of people think that these type of sensor monitors make you paranoid and anxious however I believe that with a reliable one they really help to ease that desire to prod and check baby every ten minutes!! As I had  a c-section I was in hospital for two nights, this really helped me to get over a lot of the anxiety, so when we did get home I didn't immediately set up the monitor. We waited for a couple of weeks when we started putting Albie upstairs in the evenings. I did attempt to try and set this up whilst pregnant, this did not go down well at all. In fact I think I may have cried and screamed, I tried reading the instructions and it just wasn't sinking in, Mr. C is amazing with DIY and can build and fix anything however, he struggles with Sky + and only last year gave my email address to someone starting it with www. (LOOOL) so as you can imagine technology is not his thing, he has slightly improved and now has his own email address and can use ebay very well, but for this mission it looked like I was on my own. 

When we did get round to setting it up, it was very much a joint effort, I managed all the settings and Mr.C managed the setting up, we did have to tear a small hole in the moses basket lining so we could thread the wire through from the sensor pad. You will also need a piece of flat wood a little bigger than the sensor pad to ensure a flat surface. 

As you can see from the photo above the monitor comes in three parts, the pad, nursey unit and the parent unit. Setting up involves placing the pad in the middle of the cot or moses basket- We use a sleeping bag for Albie, but if we were using blankets we would be placing him feet to bottom, so I would have placed the pad underneath where he would have been in that position (in the cot that is, We placed it in the middle of the Moses Basket) The sensor pad is then connected to the nursery unit, there is the another wire used to plug the nursery unit in. The sensitivity is already set so there is no need to change that on the nursery unit unless you feel the need to. It is vital you keep all cables away from baby, AngelCare have recently sent out cable covers to users of these monitors, however Albie is in no way able to get near the cables, and I think when he is older and crawling around, he will be loud enough for us to hear him cry without use of a monitor. However a free cord cover kit is available direct from Angelcare: email them at helpline@babyhelpline.co.uk with your full name and address or call 08450091789. 

The parent unit can then be placed wherever you would like it, ideally near a plug socket so you can charge the unit easily.  

There are so many features on this monitor and it's really down to you which ones you chose to use. 

Parent unit settings 

The side bar enables you to see the volume and also the sensitivity of the microphone.

The Microphone setting is used to set the sensitivity of the microphone, you can also set this to continuous sound so you can hear every noise or you can set it to re-active meaning it will only switch on when it picks of a sound, usually the baby, I do find if we have this on high sensitivity that it will pick on doors closing downstairs, also when it is set on re-active the first second of noise usually isn't picked up. 

The satellite setting is accessed to turn on or off the 'out of range' alert. 

Temperature settings enable you to set an alarm if the temperature of the nursery falls or rises above a certain temp. 

The pendulum image you can see is used for the 'tic feature' this constantly moves to ensure you all is ok, you are also able to turn on a constant 'tic' sound. We don't use the sound. 

The speaking face is quite self explanatory, this is the sound feature. We always have this on

The waves on the right of the screen are used to access the movement feature, we always have this on too. 

You can also see a little wavy line and alarm bell next to the temperature, this show that both the sound alarm and vibrate are on. You can chose to have either or both on. 

Other features include a hold option- perfect for night feeds, always a good idea to do this before lifting baby up, unless you want to wake up your partner with a frightening alarm sound. You can also put the monitor on mute for 2 minutes, I tend to use this if Albie has woken in the night for a little moan and is trying to get himself back to sleep, he very rarely cries so if he does during this two minutes I can hear him through the wall, it just enables me to see if he will settle himself in those two minutes, which he always does. There is also a nightlight, which we always have on and a thermometer, which is so handy. The battery also lasts really well ! 

I have been really impressed with this monitor so would recommend it to any new parents, the only feature I would like to to have is maybe a 2 way sound system, so you could let baby know you were still there with a couple of reassuring 'shhhhhh's'. We also had a a slight problem with the transmission as we placed the parent unit next to the wall we share with neighbours and we kept hearing a a fuzzy noise every two minutes, we worked out it must be getting picked up from the neighbours mobile phone, all we had to do was change the channel on the parent unit and we didn't hear anymore interference. 

I really would encourage you to read all the instructions before attempting to set this up, you will also want to test the pad is working well before relying on it. I would also ask you to have a look at the NHS website for guidance on resuscitation, it is such an awful situation to think about however it's best to be prepared and well informed. 

I hope this helped you come to a decision if you were considering this monitor. Please do feel free to get in touch and ask any questions, I'll do my best to answer them for you!