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Meet our daughter (L) and son (R)

From the first night we moved Jolie into her own room after sharing ours, we've had a baby monitor on duty. I, going through much anguish and turmoil  to be separated from my daughter, kept the monitor turned up so I could still hear each grunt, sigh and whimper. If we couldn't be physically close, at least we could be audibly. Well, at least one-way audibly. In our old house, the distance between our rooms was not that far, but we kept both doors closed due to our beast cat who had the habit of curling up in her crib or our bed (I'm allergic) if given open access.

Over time, I realized that listening to her every grunt, sigh and whimper inches away from my ear was probably contributing to my poor sleep in general. Those times that I had the volume on the monitor turned down, largely by accident, I was still able to hear her when she needed me but I wasn't disturbed by her innocent sleeping noises.

Nearly three years later and the monitor is still in use. Not overnight anymore, but it helps us know when she's up for the morning and helps us keep track if she actually goes down for her nap versus spending nap time singing and talking to her stuffed animals, teaching them the ways of her world. (The monitor we chose was Sony's BabyCall 900 MHz one - a rechargeable battery was KEY for us.)

For JL, we decided to get a handheld video baby monitor. I liked the idea of being able to visually check on him without having to decipher cryptic sounds or cries. Is he just trying to sleep or is his head in the bumper? We read some reviews - all of the video monitors seemed to have their own issues - and wound up getting the Summer Infant Day and Night video monitor that boasts nightvision.

So far, we've hardly used the video capability and have just stuck with audio. We set up the video camera to capture his crib scene, but as he has not graduated to the crib yet, our video is only of the ceiling fan at this point. (And a lovely, still fan it is!)

This time, again, I am addicted to listening to JL's each grunt, sigh, and whisper, and keep the monitor inches away from my ear at night. (We moved him into his own room at around 9 weeks, 2 weeks ago.) In fact, as I'm sitting here typing, the monitor is sitting next to me, lounging on the couch on its back.

At times, we have our two monitors going, side by side, striking me as strangely futuristic and robot-like. Meet our kids, monitor 1 and monitor 2!  Say hello kids!

I wonder when, in how many years, will be off monitors completely? What did people do in the days before monitors? I swear, they're like my own appendages. Appendages that sometimes get in the way, but ones I can't imagine living without.