First Years Talk & Soothe Monitor

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

I know Eleanor is still little (2 months), but I want to get into more of a routine with her at bedtime.  Usually she stays out in the living room with us, and either I go to bed first and Rob will bring her in when he goes to bed, or I stay up and she comes to bed with me (she sleeps in our room; not our bed).  Often times it's not until 11 pm and while she does snooze in her bouncer or with one of us holding her, I don't want her to get into the habit of a late bedtime.

But I also want to be able to see her and hear her, so when I was given the opportunity to try out the First Years Talk Soothe Monitor I wanted to see how it would work.  In the next month or so I'm hoping I can transition her to her crib.  Not because I want to, but she's getting to tall for her rock n play.

We have a monitor, and we do like it for the most part, but lately it's been having problems.  The sound wouldn't work at all, and when we had a ice storm around Christmas the internet went out for a few days.  The camera runs though wifi and is viewed on a iPhone/iPad app and with no internet it doesn't work. It was a feature I loved on it because it could be viewed from anywhere, but now I don't so much.  I'm a first time mom and need to see my baby, so the First Years Monitor arrived at a perfect time.

It was so easy to set up, and while I glanced through the manual I wouldn't have needed to.  I plugged in the monitor and the parent unit (the handheld part) after putting in the rechargeable battery pack that is included.   I let it charge for a little while and then took it off to play around with it.

The image is upside down but has a clip for clothes or the middle part
 of the clip actually pulls out and becomes a stand

She fell asleep during tummy time, and I let her sleep there for just a few
minutes while I switched some laundry and put away dishes, all the
while constantly peeking at her.

All that you need to do is to turn on both the monitor and the parent unit, adjust the camera to make sure you can see the baby and it's all set.

On the base of the monitor there is also a night light (which can be turned on remotely).  Eleanor likes to look at this.  You can also turn on lullabies through the parent unit to play through the monitor as well.

You can zoom in and out or direct the monitor to different directions.   One feature that I can see us having a love/hate relationship is the talk back feature.  It's either going to soothe her or distract her and make her angry.

I do like how when it detects sound the lights above the parent unit turn red (seen in the video below; I didn't let my baby cry after shooting the clip, promise!). There have been a few nights Rob and I have stayed up watching tv and I've turned the sound down low.

This monitor is easy to move around from room to room.  During the day it's in her room when she naps, and at night when she goes to bed in our room I set it up before I go to bed so I can watch her.

I am really liking this monitor and have started to use it more than the one we already owned. I love the portability of it, and the image quality is pretty good.  I can see this one coming in handy if Eleanor was somewhere else (such as a grandparents) and needed to sleep. 

Downside:  The lullabies start to drive me crazy after a few minutes on repeat, and I wish the monitor had a battery pack option (for instances such as when the power goes out.)

You can purchase the Talk & Soothe Monitor at Target for $100

Target, The First Years & Snapfish are having a special promotion through January 31 2014 as well.  If you purchase the monitor I reviewed, the crisp and clear double or single audio monitor you will receive a free photo book as well as discounts from Snapfish.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.