To Monitor or Not to Monitor

My husband and I never bought a baby monitor for our son. We all shared a room early on, and by the time our son transitioned to his own space, we were quite confident that he would make himself heard if he needed us.

We also never downloaded apps to track his eating or sleeping habits. I tried to log his diaper changes and feedings into the booklet that our hospital handed out but immediately stopped when our pediatrician told us that the log was unnecessary. I personally did not enjoy keeping track of this information. Logging made it too easy to focus on the chores of parenthood rather than the joys.

I’ve encountered a lot of new moms who are tracking their babies. Most seem to find it useful. Sometimes they use this information to figure out a schedule for their little one. Other times it helps them feel more content to see that their baby is getting the recommended amount of feedings, sleep and diaper changes each day. Or it provides them with an extra sense of security.

There are countless apps and devices available to monitor baby. Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of ads for the Sproutling, a wearable baby monitor that not only tracks baby’s heart rate and temperature but it will even predict when it expects baby to wake up. Although we have a new baby in our house, I’m not planning to purchase any of their devices or apps. Maybe it’s because I already raised my son without them, so I don’t believe they are necessary. Or maybe it is because I feel like using these devices might end up just eating up time that I would rather spend on more enjoyable activities.

Did you monitor or track your baby? Do you think these new apps and devices are useful or unnecesary?