Baby monitor tidbits

Back when we first brought Jac home, we tried several baby monitors and ultimately picked the Graco iMonitor Vibe: the cheaper analog monitors were too noisy for our taste.

Then, with Nic, we decided to set up a second set of monitors. We bought the iMonitor Vibe 2 (two-receiver pack), bringing our total to two "child" (sender) units, and three "parent" (receiver) units. We put one sender in the boys' room, and the other sender in the master bedroom. That way, we could listen to the boys sleeping in either room.

Overall, we have been happy with the iMonitor Vibe for the past two years, and even have taken them with us when we travel.

Like many of the newer multi-unit cordless phone systems, a receiver is 'paired' to a sender so that multiple systems can coexist in the same neighborhood. This is great, because it pretty much eliminates interference, especially in multiple-dwelling structures (read: apartment complexes).

At one point, we lost a receiver, and ended up with a sender without a paired receiver, and the second sender with two paired receivers. Fortunately, you can erase and re-establish the pairing on a receiver: 1) turn the receiver off, 2) turn on the receiver with the volume-down button held down, 3) after two seconds and a beep, release the volume-down button, 4) hold the volume-down button again, 5) after two seconds and a beep, turn the receiver off, 6) turn the receiver on against to set up a new pairing. While you're doing this, you must turn on only the intended sender to be paired to, and turn the other sender off.

BTW, the manual for the monitor can be found at http://www.gracobaby.com/. (It actually took me like a week to find the online manual when I first looked!)

When we moved into our Pasadena apartment, we decided on one bedroom for us and the boys and use the second bedroom as an office/study/storage area. We wanted a receiver in the living room, and the other in the office. No problem -- just re-do the pairing on one of the receivers, and good to go, right?

Alas, I ran into signal interference problems -- I was able to erase the pairing, but couldn't re-establish the pairing in our apartment. I think there must be several of these systems in active use around us, so the receiver couldn't pick the correct sender to pair with. I finally had to take our sender and two receivers out of our apartment to complete the pairing. Away from the other senders, the receivers paired up right away, and everything is now working fine. No intereference. Hurrah!