Using a wifi camera as baby monitor - Nest/Arlo/etc?

[vtdiamond]

My twins are 3 years old and share a room. They're in beds now, so I feel like I still need a camera in there to keep an eye on them as they like to tear their room apart!  As part of tearing their room apart they keep breaking our current Motorola monitor (I think we're on our 3rd one now).

I would like to replace their monitor with a wifi camera and was thinking of a Nest or Arlo camera.  My only hesitation is with the notifications (or lack there of) I'll get from those.  I like the sounds of the Arlo camera as it's wireless, does anyone use one as a baby monitor?

They sleep through the night 99% of the time so won't be many wake ups middle of the night, but I do want to be aware if there are any.  I do want to be sure I'm alerted when they wake up early in the morning and to see what trouble they are getting into when I put them down for the night.

[sillygoosegirl]

I am not familiar with either of those cameras, but I have been very impressed by the adroid phone-to-phone monitoring app Dormi.

[janegold]

We use the Nest, but it's more of a spying device than a baby monitor. We're in a smallish condo so I can hear him no matter what. I like having the camera to check in on him without going in his room. If I needed the monitor to actually alert me when he is crying, the Nest wouldn't do that unless you left the app open constantly on another device. My friend actually does that - she leaves the app open on her ipad as soon as her daughter goes to sleep.

[konapoppy]

We use the nest cam for the twins and I agree that it is more of a spying device. Our bedrooms are all close together so I can hear them anyway. If you paired it with a cheap audio monitor it could work well for you.

This morning I caught Kona busting in their room and looking around before realizing that they couldn’t get up and feed him lol

[hbomdiggity]

We used a WiFi camera when DS was a baby. We never had a “baby monitor” so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it did the job.

I would just suggest mounting it up in the corner of three ceiling to help protect it.

[Koala]

Feb 7, 2018 10:35:24 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

We use the nest cam for the twins and I agree that it is more of a spying device. Our bedrooms are all close together so I can hear them anyway. If you paired it with a cheap audio monitor it could work well for you.

This morning I caught Kona busting in their room and looking around before realizing that they couldn’t get up and feed him lol

This.  We have used a nest camera paired with a cheap audio monitor for our twins since they were born.  Our nanny uses the audio from the nest cam app on a tablet to check on them during nap time.  I use the audio monitor at night.  I like being able to check in on them even if I'm not home. 

[vtdiamond]

Feb 7, 2018 15:17:18 GMT -5 Koala said:

Feb 7, 2018 10:35:24 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

We use the nest cam for the twins and I agree that it is more of a spying device. Our bedrooms are all close together so I can hear them anyway. If you paired it with a cheap audio monitor it could work well for you.

This morning I caught Kona busting in their room and looking around before realizing that they couldn’t get up and feed him lol

This.  We have used a nest camera paired with a cheap audio monitor for our twins since they were born.  Our nanny uses the audio from the nest cam app on a tablet to check on them during nap time.  I use the audio monitor at night.  I like being able to check in on them even if I'm not home. 

Thanks guys, I think that's what I may end up doing.  We're so close to being done with a baby monitor, so I can't really justify buying a new monitor, but I still need a camera in there to keep an eye on them.

[sparkythelawyer]

We LOVE our nest cam. Being able to stalk my kid when I'm away is awesome :-)

[spk926]

We have nest cams and love them! We even bring them on vacations because it's so easy to. We can hear the kids if they wake up at night, but during the day when DS is napping and DH and I want to nap we'll open the nest app and turn the sound on low and then shut our door and sleep. We can hear him fine that way and it works well.

[Koala]

Feb 7, 2018 15:25:35 GMT -5 vtdiamond said:

Feb 7, 2018 15:17:18 GMT -5 Koala said:

This.  We have used a nest camera paired with a cheap audio monitor for our twins since they were born.  Our nanny uses the audio from the nest cam app on a tablet to check on them during nap time.  I use the audio monitor at night.  I like being able to check in on them even if I'm not home. 

Thanks guys, I think that's what I may end up doing.  We're so close to being done with a baby monitor, so I can't really justify buying a new monitor, but I still need a camera in there to keep an eye on them.

If you use it in their room for a while and then decide you don't need it anymore, you can always put it somewhere else in your house. 

[magpie]

I have a foscam camera that I like a lot. It can be set to send my phone a notification if there's motion or sound, but I don't use that feature. I only use it to peek in when I want to. It's very handy for that. I like that I can peek in when I'm not home too. I don't use that feature often (like, I don't spy on my babysitters), but it was useful here and then for things like checking to see if my cleaning lady had been there/finished before I decided to come home and work from home or peeking to make sure that my parents (not the best babysitters) got my son down to sleep okay.

[hellokatie]

We use the arlo pro. we don't like it's storage fee but I get to monitor my son the way I like it since it has motion sensors and all.