When my husband and I started thinking about the must-have items we needed to buy before we had our baby, we bucketed them into two categories: critical items with a safety tie-in and things that we were comfortable getting as hand-me-downs, like onesies and toys. Aside from the crib, a big-ticket item we spent a significant amount of time researching was the baby monitor.
We wanted something that would be reliable and run without WiFi — we didn't see the need of storing the footage and valued the digital privacy. After chatting with friends about the Infant Optics DXR-8 Video Baby Monitor ($166, originally $230) and seeing that it had over 15,000 five-star reviews on Amazon, we bought it. I've been using it daily for five months now and I can honestly say it does the job! Here's why it ranks so high in my book.
This was something that was super important to me. I wanted to be able to clearly see my daughter at night, even in complete darkness.
We never got around to buying a room thermometer, so I was pleased that this came with a temperature display. Now I always know if she's too warm or too cold.
You can swap out the lens if you want for more options, but I've been happy with the stock camera. I can zoom in — even in the night-view mode — and see my daughter's chest going up and down, which is a huge plus for me. It's also really adorable to see her sleeping at night.
This was a feature I immediately didn't rank as a "must have" when shopping around for a monitor. But now that I've been using it for five months, I've frequently forgotten to charge the monitor end. The battery is supposed to last 10 hours, and though I haven't pushed it that far, I've come close.
Infant Optics DXR-8 Video Baby Monitor ($166, originally $230)