Would you say you are addicted to listening to your baby monitor? In this blog post, I have three questions to ask you! If you answer yes to one or all of them, you, my friend are addicted to the baby monitor. But don’t worry, as a pediatric sleep consultant, I’m going to share what to do next!

Three questions to ask yourself about using a baby monitor

We make getting sleep help easy. And sometimes you have a kid who sleeps great, but you have a feeling of low-level anxiety that you can’t quite figure out where it’s coming from until you realize it’s the baby monitor. In this blog, I’m here to help you unhook yourself, maybe literally from the monitor itself so you can feel more relaxed in your parenting experience.

I myself am a recovering baby monitor addict. At first, I didn’t realize it. So, I want to help you release yourself and get better sleep by acknowledging that you have a baby monitor addiction. We have three questions to walk through and I want you to answer in your head. Yes or no.

Question 1: Do you wear your child’s baby monitor?

The first question is: do you wear your child’s monitor? Like an accessory? Are you holding it while walking around the house? Is it clipped to your back pocket? Are you keeping it lodged in your sweatshirt’s front pouch? Yes or no.

Question 2: Is your monitor at the maximum volume?

The second question: is your monitor at max volume? Have you turned that volume all the way up day and night? It is on max volume. Yes or no.

Question 3: Are you watching the monitor closely for any activity or movement?

My third question: Are you watching the monitor with the same excitement and level as intensity as if you were watching a new Netflix release? Yes or no.

If you said yes to one, two, or all three of those questions, you are probably addicted to the baby monitor.

How do I know this? Because I lived it.

And I want to share with you three ways that you can help release this anxiety around a baby monitor.

Now, before we move on, you absolutely have every right to be addicted to the baby monitor.

If your kid is waking up all night long, they’re taking micro naps. Sleep is not a thing in your household. And if that describes you and your family, we have to, step one, make sleep a thing.

So I want you to check out first and foremost our Little Z Sleep programs. Find a program that you can use today, starting as soon as possible to actually help your child fall asleep within 10 minutes and stay asleep all night long.

How can you free yourself from obsessing over the baby monitor?

The first step I have for you to free yourself from being tethered to the baby monitor is to turn the volume down.

I don’t know why this is a mom instinct, but as soon as you hook up that monitor, you’re likely to turn the monitor volume all the way up. Those things are loud and often pick up the sound machine in the nursery. I used to joke that the monitor was my sound machine because I had it turned all the way up.

Even if your child wakes up and cries, you are likely to hear them on the monitor at a lower volume. This is the easiest first step to free yourself from being attached to the baby monitor.

The second step I need you to take is to potentially move the monitor away from your side of the bed.

I remember it took me years to voice to Chad, my husband, that I was constantly waking all night long due to random sounds in the baby monitor. Even though my girls had been sleeping through the night for years, my brain would still wake me due to phantom cries, coughs, and small sounds.

After revealing this to Chad, he suggested that we move the monitor to his side of the bed. We should have done it years ago and now I sleep so much better.

Talk to your partner about this, or just go ahead and move it across the room so that you are not constantly checking it throughout the night.

My final tip for you is to go out and get a babysitter. Now, how does this help us with our monitor addiction?

Well, here’s the thing. If you have a monitor that is not connected to wifi, you can leave the house and can’t even look at it! This is going to help you become more detached from the monitor.

You know your child has an experienced babysitter and they can fall asleep within 10 minutes and sleep all night long. Go out and enjoy a night out!

Get a well-deserved rested night of sleep!

You deserve to be a happy, healthy, and well-rested family. Oftentimes, when we become parents and we get addicted to the monitor, we lose a little piece of ourselves. So I hope that these three tips were super helpful for you.

I have a special bonus for you: we have a free babysitter checklist. We walk you through how to fill out the bedtime routine. We walk you through what to do and how to communicate with the sitter if they wake up.

>> Grab the Free Babysitter Checklist! 

Do you have any other tricks to free yourself from obsessively checking the baby monitor? Share below!

As parents and mothers, we want to be able to link arms and help you continue to make sleep a thing and to get the best rest that you deserve.

Thank you so much for being here.

Sweet dreams. See you next time.

Becca

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