We made the decision with Archie to start putting him upstairs to bed at only 6 weeks old. Unlike his big brother who slept on and off all evening for the first few months, Archie was putting himself into such a deep sleep from around 7pm that I was waking him up to take him to bed when I got tired. It seemed to be that he wanted the routine of a bedtime so reluctantly I gave up my cosy evening cuddles and started taking him upstairs with Dylan at 7.
The monitor has a portable parent device that not only listens in on the baby but also tells you the temperature of their room too - this means if I notice it getting colder in the bedroom I can pop up and cover Archie with a blanket.
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I won't lie, it was lovely to reclaim our evenings without worrying about disturbing the little guy and he sleeps much better in the dark, quiet room than he did with the TV on in the background and the bloke and I chatting away. With our room being at the opposite end of the house to the front room though, it meant a baby monitor was necessary. Our last monitor had such a loud background noise that we happily binned it as soon as we realised we could hear Dylan just as loudly without it, so when I had an email asking if I wanted to try the Tomy TF525 I was looking forward to testing it out.
The monitor also has a built in night light, perfect for those inevitable middle of the night feeds as I make sure not to turn any main lights on in the night so the baby stays nice and sleepy. The monitor also plays several soothing lullabies that can be controlled by the parent unit and it can be used as a walkie talkie (not that we have ever done this of course! ;) ) to reassure the child from downstairs. I love this feature as occasionally a large shhhh - ing sound can settle Archie back to sleep.
What I was most impressed with though, is how quiet the monitor is. There is absolutely no background noise so I know that when we are ready to move Archie to his own room, I will not be kept awake by the buzzing of a monitor by my bed.
The monitor has several noise settings as well as lights to indicate sound coming from babies room and comes complete with a rechargeable battery for the parent unit as well as a wire to plug it in to the socket. The parent unit has a low battery and out of range alarm for reassurance and comes with a two year guarantee.
I am really impressed with the monitor and my baby-free evenings are relaxed knowing I can hear exactly what the little man is up to upstairs. The monitor retails at £49.99 - a great price for such a functional monitor and can be bought from the Tomy Website
Disclaimer: I was provided with a baby monitor for the purpose of this review but all thoughts and opinions are completely my own.