I love our baby monitor. In the heady early days of parenthood it made us privy to every cough, every sigh, every gurgle that S made. (We actually didn't need it very often with B because his howls could be heard unassisted three city blocks away.)
When the boys were toddlers that same monitor provided me with a couple of hours of precious freedom each day while they were napping. I could sit outside on the deck and read a book or run on our noisy treadmill and still know the exact moment that either of them started to stir.
Needless to say, the days of cribs and naps are long gone and our baby monitor has been hidden away in a drawer along with other once-useful flotsam and jetsam.
We live in a typical German Doppelhaus, sharing a roof with our American neighbors, E and S. And over the past months we've been building up an increasingly communal existance. We spend a couple of evenings a week together sharing wine, coffee, bad jokes and cheesy movies.
So the baby monitor is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. M and I can go next door for late dinners and listen in on S and B's bedroom at the same time. They never actually wake up, but it's still a comfort to know that, if they did we would hear it right away and could go back to check on them.
The other day B was home with a stomach virus. He only vomited once but was feeling pretty crappy otherwise. He spent the morning on the couch, the wheels of his journey back to health greased by copious amounts of apple juice, Thomas the Tank Engine videos and TLC from Catbert.
True to Murphy's law, he fell asleep about 10 minutes before I had to go pick S up from school. I was loathe to wake him and took the baby monitor over to E: Could he please just listen in for the 20 minutes it would take me to run out and back? I didn't expect B to wake up or need anything.
E agreed immediately; He and S have no kids of their own but love S and B and are always eager to jump in and help when it's needed.
I went back home and was about to walk out the door when I decided to throw a load of clothes in the dryer down in the cellar. I was standing there with an armful of damp laundry when I heard the front door blast open and someone bounding up the stairs.
Came up to see my wild-eyed neighbor running around the corner. He looked shocked and extremely relieved to see me-- over the baby monitor he'd heard the intimate sounds of B retching into a garbage can beside his bed. Sounds which were way too soft for me to hear downstairs. How's that for irony? :-D
4 comments:
Oh isn't that so great when you have neighbours you can rely on! I wish I'd already know some of my neighbours in Leuven, but on one side they're all students and the other side just got new renters.
We used to live in San Diego suburbia -- where our neighbors were like family. Oh, how I miss that! This isolated acre of land is both lovely and aweful!
Carol
Good old technology! I never had a baby moniter when my kids were little, but maybe one would be helpful to keep tabs on the dog?
Oh wow, great idea with the baby monitor. We also live in a Doppelhaus and our neighbours are the nicest people. It's so great to know they're there on the other side if we need them.
My kids have been home with stomach aches lately but they never quite get to the vomiting part. Must be something going around.
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