what's better than watching a baby sleep?

When Ryan was a baby we never got a video monitor, even though I reallllllllly wanted one. We had a regular baby monitor and the video ones were just too expensive for us at the time. All those times I wished I could see what Ryan was doing – especially when I’d wake up after a 5-hour stretch and panic that something must be wrong.

Finally, with Rebecca, we got the opportunity to use a video monitor and I adore it! There’s seriously nothing better than watching a sleeping babe and I can seriously sit and stare at this monitor forever. I just kind of space out and look at her cute little face. ((Photo below taken with my iPhone – doesn’t do the video monitor image justice, promise!))

This is the Peek Plus Internet Baby Monitor System from Summer Infant. The handheld video monitor is lightweight, thin, and has a clip on the back to attach to your pants or bag and it also pulls out so you can stand the monitor up.

But… the coolest thing EVER? You can connect your video monitor to the internet. AND not only can you watch it on a secure website on your computer, but there’s also an app so you can tune in from your smartphone or tablet. LOVE!

First, here’s my sleeping princess as seen on my laptop screen… checking in on her while I’m blogging, of course! In the upper right photo below you can see the controls given on the website while I’m viewing online. It also shows your baby’s name and the date and time… it plays in real time for the most part, so no need to refresh manually.

The bottom right photo is a comparison of the video feed on the handheld monitor and on the website on my laptop. They’re the same. There really isn’t a delay and the video streamed impressively well on my laptop.

You just plug the little white wifi gateway directly into your router (ethernet cord included), then you go to Summer Infant’s secure Peek Plus website, enter in some registration numbers, and ta-da! Sleeping baby online! You create a user name and password to share with others and there can be up to three people viewing at once.

When I called my mom and gave her the website and our log-in information, she was SOOOO excited to be able to watch Rebecca sleep from her house 45 minutes away. You should have heard the two of us: Oh how sweet! She just moved! Did you see her move?! Oh there she goes again! Aww now I can see her face! Did I miss anything? Look at her hand!

You’d think we were watching a movie or something, haha.

And? My husband can check in and see his sleeping beauty during naps while he’s at work!

AND I can get much further range than a typical monitor. Granted this handheld monitor really does go quite the distance, but if I’m outside playing with Ryan I really don’t have to worry if I have my cell phone with me.

Also, Ryan adores to see Rebecca sleeping on the iPad app:

Just an FYI — the directions say to search “summer infant” in the app store, but that didn’t work for me… it didn’t turn up any results. I searched “summer” and it was on the first page of results with the butterfly icon.

Ryan thinks it’s pretty cool to be able to see his sister! And on multiple devices at once lol:

As you can see on the handheld monitor, there are some setting options, too. You can easily control volume on the side (a green light also comes on to signify noise intensity) and screen brightness on the front. There are also options to add other cameras – I need one for my son’s room! Grandma and Grandpa especially want to see him sleeping, too!

On the top there’s a button for turning the video screen on and off – it will save your battery to only turn the image on when needed. To give you an idea on battery life, I’ll charge this fully before nighttime and then take it to bed with me. It almost lasts all the way till morning.

Check out the Peek Plus FAQs if you have any questions about how it all works – it’s all really so simple. You can watch a video tutorial, too.

You can buy the Summer Infant Peek Plus at Babies R Us for $349.99. Make sure you find Summer Infant on twitter and facebook, too!