The iPhone Mom

We have four children and we have gone through a baby monitor with each child. I’m not sure why they fail on us every time but it probably has something to do with our buying cheap baby monitors. Inevitably the cord gets a short and you never know when it’s working or not. There’ve been many times when I’ve walked by the monitor and discovered it’s not on, so I go to check on the baby (because I’m worried it’s not been on for awhile) and by opening the door I wake her up. Oops!

I’ve read about iPhone apps that turn your iPhone into a baby monitor but I’ve never tried one out until now. The app that I tested is BabyPhone Deluxe (Baby Monitor). It’s easy to use, you configure the microphone’s sensitivity, enter in the phone number of another phone, turn the phone to silent and leave the room. The microphone sensitivity lets the iPhone detect more or less noise. I like less noise because I want to make sure she’s really awake and not just moving around in bed. I would suggest testing the app out before you actually use it to make sure you get the noise sensitivity set to the right level. The phone number is important because the app will call that number when it registers noise. And I probably don’t even need to explain why turning your phone to silent is critical. You wouldn’t want a phone call coming through and waking the baby up! Another nice feature is the ability to set a time delay between when the app registers the sound and when it actually calls you. I’ve got a decent delay on mine because I want to make sure my baby is actually awake before I barge in that room. You can also set the app to reactivate itself after it’s triggered. When you answer the phone you can talk to your baby over the iPhone’s speaker. This would probably calm many babies down but mine would only get more upset and wonder where in the world I was. Plus I’ve got to keep that feature hidden from my older kids or my iPhone is going to become a very expensive walkie talkie.

BabyPhone Deluxe also has a recorder that will record the noises and “talking” your baby makes. You’re able to adjust it’s sensitivity to sound and you can email out the sound clips. The app has an event log that tracks and displays everything that has gone on. You can see when the monitor was triggered and when things were recorded.

This app is $2.99 and when I add up the total amount of money I’ve spent on baby monitors it seems like a steal to me! Plus, there are no cords to mess with and no worrying about the monitors range.  Now here’s the catch for me. We don’t have a home phone so during the day I’ve got no additional phone number for the app to call. Drat! But if you’ve got access to another phone during the day and you’re looking for an alternative to a traditional baby monitor then definitely give BabyPhone a try!

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: Bluefields BVBA

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.