A baby monitor is an essential piece of equipment for any mother.  I remember the night that I finally stopped sleeping on the couch, right next to my newborn daughter in her bassinet and instead, slept in the adjoining bedroom to her nursery.  I was so nervous that I was going to miss something, that I might not hear her cry out, that she might get wedged in the corner of her crib, etc.  A mother's worries never end, right?

I remember depending so heavily on my baby monitor to alert me to every one of Riley's coos and cries.  Now that Riley is older, I still depend heavily on my baby monitor.  I like to know exactly when she gets up from a nap and when she's having trouble falling asleep at night.  I also find it extremely entertaining to hear the little "performance" that she puts on every night before she goes to sleep.

{Read more about that in an earlier blog post of mine entitled, "The Beauty of the Baby Monitor"}.  I honestly never thought about having a VIDEO baby monitor before and I definitely jumped at the opportunity when the folks from Safety 1st asked if I'd like to give the True View Color Video Monitor a try.

Safety 1^st ensures a private and clear connection between you and your baby with the True View Color Video Monitor.  Digital leaves less room for static to sneak in, letting you feel like you're right in the room with your little one without having to disturb their slumber to know that they're okay.

I was thrilled when I first received the Safety 1st True View Color Video Monitor and took it out of its packaging.  There were only 5 items included:  the parent unit, the baby unit, two AC adapters and the instruction booklet!  I couldn't believe that the installation was going to be this easy!  The baby monitor we used before took a very long time to set up because we had to find the perfect place in the room to put her monitor so as not to get feedback from any other electrical device, and we also had to install a motion detector inside the crib itself to make sure that baby was breathing and moving around.

The Safety 1st monitor took no time at all to set up because it uses DIGITAL monitoring, which means that the signal is dedicated and only travels between the baby and parent monitors.  This also equals NO STATIC in the signal and so I could literally place the baby monitor anywhere in Riley's room with no interference from any other devices.

The next step was to find the perfect place in her room to mount the baby unit.  I chose a fairly high spot on a bookshelf which was near a power supply so that I could easily plug the baby unit into the wall and still get a bird's eye view of her crib.  Since Riley is a toddler now, we don't need such an up-close view of her while she sleeps, so we decided to place the camera so that we could see her entire crib.  She's such a little acrobat, she's all over every inch of her crib during the night anyway!  :)

Next, I plugged in the parent unit into the wall and the rechargeable battery immediately began to charge.  I left the parent unit plugged in and turned it on so that I could adjust the camera's view to the perfect placement.  I was very surprised at how good the picture was on the parent unit.  Watching the colored video feed on the 2" screen, was just like watching TV!  I could hear all of the sounds in Riley's room very clearly and the picture was really very good!

The great thing about the baby unit is that it also has automatic night vision so that you can see your child in a darkened room too.  We always leave Riley's night light on when she sleeps and this is more than enough light for the night vision of the baby unit to pick up so that we can still keep an eye on her at night too.

Most of the time, we leave our parent unit plugged into the wall since we have an end table right near an outlet.  It's great though that the unit does not HAVE to be plugged into a power source though!  There have been several times when I went to check the mail or needed to do something in another room of the house while Riley was sleeping, and it was so nice just to unplug the parent unit, clip it on my waistband and take it with me!

The volume and brightness adjustments are extremely easy to operate as well.  The parent unit also has a feature whereby you can turn off the video and only listen to the audio.  This is especially useful if you do not have the unit plugged into a power source and are trying to conserve the battery's charge.  Then, at just the press of a button, you can turn the video back on again and watch what your little one is doing.  The parent unit also has a red sound bar across the top so that you can visually see if there's any loud noises coming from your child.  Finally, it also has a link indicator, so that you can be sure that you are still within range of the baby unit as well as a battery level indicator.

The only things I noticed that could be improved upon with this video monitor are the size of the base as well as the AC plug placement.  On the parent unit, the base is pretty narrow and it would topple over quite frequently while sitting on our table.  Any little bump or movement to the table would cause the parent unit to fall over.  If the unit had either a base stand or a wider base, this could be avoided.  Also, the parent unit's AC adapter plugs in to the right side of the unit.

Since the parent unit itself is very light, the AC adapter's cord being on the side would often cause the parent unit to twist and turn on the table, which was kind of frustrating at times.  If the AC adapter plugged in to the back of the parent unit, instead of the side, then the cord wouldn't spin it around so easily and the unit would stay put.  These are very minor design flaws, in my opinion, and should by no means deter you from purchasing this monitor though.  Finally, the instruction manual (pg. 4) mentions a Room Temp button on the parent unit, which I think is a wonderful feature, but for the life of me I never saw how to work that part.

I really kick myself for not investing in a video baby monitor from the beginning.  It would have saved me many sleepless nights wondering whether my audio baby monitor was working properly, was my baby okay, why wasn't she making any noise, etc.  The Safety 1st True View Color Video Monitor is a great choice since the installation was incredibly easy, it's portable, the picture and audio are perfect and you can even watch your baby at night with the automatic night vision.  The rechargeable battery included with the parent unit, also ensures that you don't waste a lot of money on disposable batteries and it's good for the environment too!