Survalance Camera System Wireless Used to Monitor Baby

How's this for a nightmarish statistic? The average newborn parent loses 109 minutes of sleep a night in the first year, according to research conducted by Sleep Junkie. And sleep is important, for both you and baby. For baby, it's crucial for cognitive development, for mother's especially it's essential for lowering your risk of post-natal depression.

It's why so many people are now willing to pay big money for a new class of smart baby monitor. The new Nanit Plus Baby Monitor promises to improve sleep for you and baby. For parents, it's peace of mind from closely-monitored breathing – for baby, it's smart sleep insights that help you work out the best routine for a quieter night. But it'll cost you. £299 to be exact, plus after the first year you'll be expected to pay a hefty subscription to continue using the smart insights.

Nanit Plus Smart Baby Monitor Camera & Wall Mount

This raises the question: is it worth it? It's certainly got the celebrity endorsement. Lucy Mecklenburgh is a fan and has used it constantly with her baby. When I was delegated by my wife to choose the tech for our nursery, I was sceptical. But now, 5 months into using Nanit, I'm getting 8 hours sleep a night and my son, Huxley, is happy and healthy. Sure, it's not a thumbs up from Lucy Meck, but this is what I thought of the smart baby monitor.

What do you get when you buy Nanit Plus Baby Monitor?

• Nanit Smart Baby Monitor Camera
• Nanit floor stand or wall mount
• Nanit breathing wear swaddle
• Nanit breathing band
• Nanit Insights subscription free for one year

Does the Nanit Plus monitor breathing?

Yes, it does. But with the Nanit camera and floor stand it does more than just that.

You can squeeze a lot of baby-safety tech into a camera the size of your headphones case, apparently. The Nanit camera is easily connected to the Nanit app on your phone and comes equipped with overhead, crystal-clear HD video, temperature and humidity tracking, white noise speaker, two-way audio, plus sleep tracking capabilities. It also comes paired with your choice of sleek wall mount or free-standing floor stand – both of which keep wires out of reach of baby.

Some of the tech is more useful than others. The quality of the camera stream is undeniably excellent. Having babysat my nephew and watched him sleep through a monitor with grainy black and white footage akin to CCTV footage, this felt like TV quality. Even in night vision mode, you can see clearly and even pinch-zoom to see if he's still awake or, like my son, one of those scary people who sleeps with one eye half-open.

Temperature and humidity sounds boring, but it's important – especially if you want to sleep through the night. A cool bedroom might help you nod off but if the baby's room slips below 18-19C then they're likely to wake up crying. Monitoring the temperature from your phone helps to guide your radiator knob-twiddling to get their room just right.

The white noise is a good idea, and white noise, in general, has been the backing track to my existence over the past five months, but I found the speaker on the camera problematic. Play it loud enough for the baby and it was really loud playing out your phone. It risks drowning out the sound of the baby crying should it wake up. We decided to buy a standalone white noise machine to play by Huxley's crib (£35, amazon.co.uk).

Marpac Hushh for Baby

Marpac amazon.co.uk

£34.95

The two-way audio is weird. Is a random robot version of your voice coming from nowhere really that reassuring to the baby? I'm not sure. This function only became helpful when freaking out my wife by whispering 'I'm watching you..' as she changed Huxley's nappy.

Is the Nanit Baby Monitor safe?

Very, I think. In conjunction with the Nanit camera and floor stand, this is where the Nanit breathing band comes into play and it made the biggest difference for my wife and me. The breathing band works exclusively with the Nanit Plus camera to monitor your baby's breathing motion with no sensors on their body.

Nanit Plus is then able to track breaths per minute, by reading subtle movements in the fabric's custom-designed pattern, and alerts you if your baby needs you. It's soft, comfortable and fits over most pyjamas. There's also a swaddle with the same pattern on it but we didn't use that because Huxley didn't like that position. Instead, we put the sleeping bag over a separate arms-up swaddle when he was really small. After that, we wrapped it around his sleeping bag. If you're using blankets then this becomes a problem because you'll struggle to keep to band visible and your baby tucked in.

It's this breathing tracking that provides peace of mind, however, especially when you transfer the baby from the bedside to a crib in their own room. Sure, you'll still be listening out for them crying over the monitor, but you'll not feel the urge to creep down and place a hand on their chest just to check they're still breathing.

If the baby does stop breathing the tech will sound off with a red alert on your phone and through the camera's speakers. It's terrifying. Luckily for us, it was never anything serious: in this instance, he'd pulled his bunny comforter onto his chest and blocked the camera. After flying down the stairs to check on him, Huxley went straight back to sleep – I lay awake for another hour trying to bring my heart rate back under 200bpm. Still, it was good to know that it worked.

Another good feature is watching their breath rate. Obviously, there is a risk of data overload and you can lose your evenings to constant checking – but the odd glance at this is a good indicator of whether the baby is likely to wake up again. If he's asleep but his breathing rate is still at 40bpm, you may be due another session spent soothing him back to sleep. If it's dropped to 25bpm, he's chilled and you're clear to crack open that bottle of Malbec.

How to use the Nanit Plus Baby Monitor Sleep Insights

All of the data gathered from monitoring the baby's breathing and movement is then compiled into Nanit Insights on the app. It gives you access to video history, morning and evening highlight reels, a complete sleep tracking overview, and personalised sleep coaching suggestions based on age. One year of Nanit Insights is included with Nanit Plus. After your first year, you can continue your subscription from £50/year.

The highlight reels are cute and, yes, my wife and I were sad enough to replay them to ourselves in bed some nights. As schmaltzy as it sounds, the opportunity to watch the baby flash you a smile first thing in the morning is something you'll find hard to resist.

In my opinion, the data dumps of statistics like sleep efficiency and sleep onset time, as well as overall sleep, are what you make of them. In some instances, I'm sure they're a trap. As mentioned, there is the risk of becoming so wrapped up in the metrics that you only stress out both you and the baby even more. But use them as a general guide and they can be useful, I think. For example, the sleep efficiency that tracks how much Huxley woke in the night persuaded us to try and leave the white noise machine playing constantly, rather than just at bedtime. It seems to have worked – we're through the much-feared four-month sleep regression now and he's still sleeping from 7 pm to 7 am.

How to User the Nanit Baby Sleep Schedule Generator

Finally, there are other benefits to using a Nanit and joining the community. There is a schedule of expert parenting webinars sent to your inbox, plus a blog with useful articles as well as a feature called the 'baby sleep schedule generator'. Below is an example of the general sleep expertise on offer at Nanit, before you've even signed up for your specific schedule.

Birth to 3 Months

Total Sleep: 14 to 18 hours a day. During the first months, brand new babies sleep in bits and pieces all throughout the day, so there isn't much of a 'schedule' to speak of.

The day starts around 7 am.

Napping: Your little sleepyhead will take lots of little naps (for up to 8 hours!)

During these first few months, it's normal for your baby to sleep just about anywhere and everywhere. That's completely ok.

Nighttime sleep starts around 10 p.m.

Your baby will drift on and off through the night, waking to feed. The longest stretch of Zzz's lasts 3-5 hours.

Overall Review: ⅘

In short, it's a market-leading piece of tech that delivers on all of its promises. It helps you to rest easier at night knowing that your baby is safe and well in the other room. When used in a healthy manner, the insights can provide useful feedback that can inform your baby's routine during the day and before bed. Finally, I think the breathing band is the most effective and least intrusive tracking option for the baby on the market. But there's no denying it – if you want all this, it'll cost ya.

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Survalance Camera System Wireless Used to Monitor Baby

Source: https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/health/sleep/a35645894/nanit-baby-monitor/

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